Genius Maelstrom
by Kento-hish17
Summary: Happening upon an underground lab near Nami no Kuni, Naruto returns during the Chuunin Exams month for training, and opens a whole world of possibilities, gifted with the knowledge and genius of Kurotsuchi Mayuri, and all the wonderful things he left in the lab in observing the Elemental Nations, as well as the truth of Konoha... Evil!Konoha, Sandaime Genius!Vengeful!Narutox harem
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This was a recent challenge given to me by **jacke44** , and... I just had to try it. It's _really_ cool, in my eyes, so I'm just going for it. Yes, it's another story on my plate. Yes, it's another NarutoxBleach. No, I don't care XD I'll be putting this up on my bio as a challenge for anyone else, so if you wanna try it, look there for the specifics.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach

"Human speech"

 _'Human thought'_

 **"Jutsu/Demon speech"**

 _ **'Demon thought'**_

Let's begin

"Stupid Kakashi-sensei... Stupid Sasuke-teme... Yeah, he's gotta fight Gaara, but what about _me?_ I'm fighting against _Neji!_ We all saw what he did to Hinata-chan! I may be awesome, but even _I'll_ admit that guys scary-strong. Does he really think that Ebisu asshole can teach me anything useful?" Naruto muttered in a round-about, illogic fashion as he trudged towards the secret place he found.

It took a lot of time convincing jii-san that he'd come back in time for the Chuunin Exams; after all, it's normally disallowed to let any shinobi leave the village during the Chuunin Exams, but after numerous aforementioned promises, as well as one to cut down the time he'd be on the road, thus cutting down on the chance he'd be attacked.

Not two weeks ago did he and Team 7 liberate these lands from Gato, allowing Tazuna to complete his bridge. Heck, he even _named_ it after him; how awesome was that?! Anyway, on the way to the bridge for the big clash that resulted in Zabuza and Haku dying, he happened upon some trap door, which he sent a clone through in case there were traps. The result was a double set of good news; one: no traps, and two: apparently he got the memories of the clones. Upon testing that in training back in Konoha before Kakashi-sensei gave them the Chuunin Exam forms, he found they could aid him, something he sure-as-hell used in training. In only a week of doing it, he was able to bring up his chakra control to less-laughable levels. Not Sakura-chan's, but good enough.

Gah, he was getting off track again! Trapdoor; right! Anyway, the clones memories showed him that the trapdoor lead to some sort of underground laboratory. While Naruto wasn't really a science type of guy, he hoped there was something in there that could help him get strong enough to beat Neji for what he did to Hinata.

Returning the hearty greetings as the people of Nami no Kuni recognized their supposed Hero, Naruto made his way to the trapdoor, finding the swirl he made in the ground at the edge of the forest between Tazuna's house and the bridge, having dodged the bridge builder and his family not to be malicious, but to avoid the time he'd waste saying hi to them and doing this and that, when he could be training. He needed all the time he could get to prepare himself against Neji.

Before he could raise the door, he heard screaming and yelling... _from Tazuna's house._ The hero in him made him almost instinctively run towards there, kunai in hand.

Bursting through the open doorway - identifying the busted-down door just after that - Naruto saw a trio of Gato's thugs pinning Tsunami down while the last intended on skewering Tazuna himself, Inari unconscious to the side.

Creating ten clones, Naruto charged forward with them in a wave of orange pain, kicking the thugs off their potential victims and whaling on them until they passed out from the pain, then tied them up.

"Tazuna, what happened?!" Naruto asked, worried for his friends.

"Gaki! Oh thank Kami you were here; those three have been asking around for us for the past week. A couple people got hurt, but thankfully no one died." Tazuna explained.

"What?! But... didn't jii-san send shinobi to help Nami?" Naruto asked, confused.

"If he did, we never got 'em. The only contact we've had with Konoha is the courier who took our message/treaty there and brought back the signed paper, solidifying our alliance. Beyond that, we've heard nothing from them, so we just started on fixing Nami ourselves; we've only made it this far because of the trade routes the bridge opened for us." Tazuna answered.

"That doesn't make any sense... jii-san _promised_ he would. Maybe... maybe he will after the Chuunin Exams; shinobi aren't allowed out of the village during them. I'm only here because I begged a lot and promised I'd stay off the road." Naruto reasoned, though that didn't get rid of the ominous feeling over his shoulder.

"I guess... so why'd you come here, anyway?" Tazuna asked, taking his reason at face-value, being a civilian not enlightening him to the finer intricacies of shinobi.

"I came for training. I found a secret place underground on the way to the bridge two weeks ago, and I came back to check it out and see if there's anything inside that could help me. I'm going off against a supposed genius in the Chuunin Exams, and Kakashi-sensei is concentrating on Sasuke-teme." Naruto answered, scowling childishly.

Tazuna chuckled heartily at that. "Well good luck, and I hope it helps you kick the kids ass." Tazuna said, seeing the boy off.

"Thanks Tazuna! I'll see you at the end of the month!" Naruto bade farewell over his shoulder.

Waving after him, Tazuna waited until Naruto was out of ear shot, before his face turned grim and slightly haunted as he got up and took a kitchen knife, dragging the thugs to the backyard. If they just threw these men in jail, or even ran them out of town, they would just return, and there wouldn't be someone to help them this time. This was for his family, and anyone else they might hurt...

 **(With Naruto)**

Finding the secret spot was easy enough, so Naruto raised the trapdoor and dropped down, cursing as he had apparently forgotten the slope the clone found, sliding on his ass and burning his hands something fierce when he attempted to slow his slide, which was futile anyway, as he tumbled out of the bottom when he reached the lab proper.

"...Ow. Whoever made that slide is an ass." Naruto commented on the ground. Getting up and dusting off his ass, he looked around for a refresher on the interior.

White. _Loooooootta_ white. And yet, it was a bit dark.

There were your basic tables covered in beakers, test tubes, papers, science-y stuff. The weird thing was the pipe organ-looking machine in the back. The large blood stain on the ground was very disconcerting, though... It was in front of a large tube-like chamber with a sticky note on it.

 _If you're going to keep killing and making replacements, the least I could do to relieve the headaches you'll make is at least keep you all from being morons. Just step in and you'll have your very own genius to keep you all from blowing up valuable equipment._

This guy... didn't sound like all his screws were that tight. Killing and making replacements? That sounded crazy. But a genius... Neji was always vaunted as a genius of the Hyuuga. So why not fight fire with fire? Plus... Naruto would reluctantly admit - in _no one's company! -_ that he wasn't that smart...

Stepping into the chamber and looking around until he found a small square button, Naruto pressed it and thanked the gods that he didn't have claustrophobia, as the glass pane behind him closed, trapping him within the chamber, before it became flooded with a bright light, some sort of energy that didn't particularly feel like chakra concentrate around his head.

Then the pain started.

It felt like someone dug their serrated claws in his head, tore it open, and poured lava right into his skull. It was the type of pain that made you wish you could just die, just to stop it. And it wasn't one of those situations where it was over almost instantly, or it was really a short amount of time but felt like forever, it literally was forever. Apparently the process the machine went through to apparently 'keep them from being morons' wouldn't exactly take for Naruto's special condition. Not just being child, or even having a different type of energy than the kind the machine was letting out...

Being alive.

Were he to have looked around a little more, he would have found numerous entries by only a single person.

Kurotsuchi Mayuri.

For half an hour, Naruto suffered in agony as knowledge he couldn't comprehend entered his mind, before he was _forced_ to comprehend it, all sorts of compounds and equations and theories fluttering before his eyes, faster than he could track, but immediately understood. Like a toaster, the chamber dinged, opened up, and tossed the blonde out on his face.

"Ow. I should really fix that." Naruto commented on the ground, rubbing his sore nose as he rose to his feet. "Pneumatic piston... pressure too high. Too much force. More than one clone dead on impact." He muttered. "But then that's not where _you_ came in, is it?" He rhetorically asked the large blood stain in the middle of the room, before walking over to a table with a large scroll on it, a couple blacked-out signatures of clones, their 'names' merely being numbers, as was their designations. You couldn't very well have four Mayuri's walking around, now could you?

The universe would _implode_ from so much concentrated genius.

Or insanity, depending on who you asked.

Anyway, this scroll in Naruto's hands was a venturing in applying observed characteristics of this world, specifically the **Kuchiyose no Jutsu,** combining it with an experimental dual-application of chemical compounds and spiritual energy flared in unique patterns to pacify the creatures before he could insert a module to make the control permanent.

A summoning scroll for Hollows was devised.

Results were... mixed. Nothing more than Menos-class were able to be bound to the scroll; anything bigger was a failure, and thus the blood stain. 432 was very ambitious, but alas... At least the beast was put down before it could continue.

"Ugh!" Naruto grunted, dropping the scroll back on the table and cradling his forehead, a migraine hitting him. _'This... this isn't my knowledge. These things...'_

Shinigami. Zanpakutou. Reiryoku. Seireitei. Hollows. Quincies. This knowledge was... not of this world. Or even this dimension.

Head suddenly snapping to the side, Naruto suddenly saw a man in the room, but he was transparent, and didn't appear to notice him.

 _"This world is very interesting. It could prove useful for me to form a base here, for research. These humans, this energy they possess; it's all very fascinating. If I am to form a laboratory here, I would require test subjects..."_ His sly grin on that mask, for Naruto knew his true face, was sickening, yet the blonde shared his sentiment, for some reason.

"Research... test subjects... yes, everything is shuffling into place. That chamber... used for clones to give them his knowledge... not meant for chakra. Based on spiritual energy, not meant to mingle with physical. But it did. The visions... a side effect. Mild identity crisis, but... I'm me. I'm Naruto. And I'm going to use this all to my advantage. Neji? A child. Orochimaru? A hack. Kurotsuchi Mayuri? Uzumaki Naruto? _Brilliance!"_ Naruto announced with a grin that belonged more on the 12th division captain. "First things first, the computer. It should have data on these inventions and theories of his." He said, walking over to the slightly curved terminal initially mistaken for some sort of shelving and pressing a button below the dust-covered screen, blowing on it to clear it.

Immediately logging in with the information he was now blessed with, Naruto searched the desktop, finding only three files.

 _Uzumaki Clan_ , _Uzumaki Destruction,_ and _Katou Dan/Senju Nawaki_.

 _'Uzumaki? I have a clan? What would he have to say about them?'_ Naruto wondered, opening it and reading the file, brushing off the last file since he didn't know who those people were.

 _"This 'Land of Whirlpools' was destroyed just recently. It was actually very fascinating. Apparently the denizens of this country, these Uzumaki, were renowned for their sealing techniques, so much so that three of these supposed Five Great Villages banded together to wipe it off the face of the earth. The fascinating part, however, was that the village under siege was betrayed by their allies, the Village Hidden in by Tree Leaves; two elderly men met the leaders of the three attacking villages and handed them information to bypass their defenses. Using my amazing cloaking device, I was able to overhear their conversation; apparently they had all they needed of the village, their techniques, and so sought to 'cut the fat', so to speak, letting the three villages do the dirty work. Whilst the village was under attack, any messenger birds or humans were killed upon arriving in Konoha. These humans and their propensity for greed are all quite fascinating; it's even more prevalent than in_ my _worlds human counterpart. I can scrounge the bodies and analyze them to better understand this 'chakra' and possibly extract these so-called vaunted techniques of theirs. This fuinjutsu could prove quite useful in the Seireitei."_

The document also came with videos Mayuri's recording equipment took of the gate guards of Konoha slaughtering any Uzumaki messengers.

...What? Konoha betrayed the Uzumaki?

Hoping against hope, Naruto opened the Clan file and read what he found to be the history of the clan, Mayuri observing them, amongst other 'prime subjects', to better understand how this world worked.

Nothing. Nothing could justify what Konoha did. Uzumaki were loyal as loyal could be. They valued family and allies above all else, even the mission. They _gave_ their techniques to Konoha willingly. And Konoha abandoned them.

White-hot fury filled Naruto's being, a rage he could never have fathomed before. It was such a potent _hate_ that he even tapped into the Kyuubi's chakra.

 _And cowed it._

The Kyuubi hated, there was no doubt about that, but it hated all things, even its sibling bijuu, but _that_ was _nothing_ compared to what Naruto felt.

 **"Get in here, boy."**

Naruto blacked out.

 **(Mindscape)**

 **"What the hell is going on out there, ningen?"** The rumbling voice of the Kyuubi was the first thing he heard, before Naruto could even acclimate to the sudden shift.

"H-huh? Wha?" Naruto muttered, slightly disoriented.

 **"What's got you so riled up that even my chakra can't cloud your mind? What happened?"** The Kyuubi demanded.

"K-Konoha... betrayed my clan. Took their techniques, and left them to die." Naruto answered while holding his head, another migraine coming on, but no vision this time.

The Kyuubi's eyes widened in surprise, before closing as it smiled in amusement. **"So, you found out about that, huh? I thought you never would, considering your fanaticism towards that den of snakes."** It commented.

"What? You _knew?_ How?" Naruto asked.

 **"I was in your mother before, and she had arrived in Konoha just on the cusp of the invasion. Though she was unconscious, I could still hear the world around her, and I heard whispers of your precious Hokage and some ningen he referred to as Danzou speak of their actions, of perpetrating the Uzumaki's destruction. I was highly amused by their tactics, and am now amused again that I am contained in such a patriot of that same village."** The Kyuubi grinned viciously.

Naruto was silent at the revelation and confirmation; for one thing, the Kyuubi admitted to being in his mother before him, and confirmed the truth on the screen. Jii-san betrayed his family... And to think he was someone proud to be from Konoha. "Well no more." Was all Naruto said, reaching up to his hitai-ate, untying it, and throwing it to the ground, even if this was his mindscape. "Each and every single one of them will pay for what they did. I will use this genius of mine to tear down the foundations of Konoha, bring them into the muck they believe themselves to be above, and bring down their world." He proclaimed with ferocity.

"Damn right, sochi-kun!"

"I never would have imagined my village would do this... but the reign of tyrants must end in fire."

Naruto stiffened and mechanically turned around, finding two people behind him, one he immediately recognized, thanks to both books and the Kyuubi's growling.

"Hello Naruto-chan."

"Hello, sochi."

"Yondaime... and... my mother?" Naruto turned to the Kyuubi for confirmation, only receiving a dismissive nod, as the bijuu focused all its hate on the Yondaime. "What are you doing here? And... what're _you_ doing here, Yondiame-sama?" He asked.

"Didn't you just hear me call you sochi? I'm your father, kiddo!" Namikaze Minato proclaimed with a grin, the woman beside him charging the blonde and wrapping Naruto up in a hug.

"My little sochi-kun, you've gotten so big!" The red-headed woman said as she seemingly attempted to suffocate the blonde with her hug.

"K-Kaa-chan... can't breathe... p-please stop." Naruto begged as his face slowly turned blue.

"Kushina-chan, I think you're killing Naruto." Minato warned with a sweatdrop.

Kushina merely let Naruto go, the blonde falling limp in her arms as he took in large gulps of air. She just had an infectious grin on her face. "I can't help it. I'm just so happy! Whatever Naru-chan did let us form a solid, permanent link in here, so we can be with him as he makes all those Konoha traitors pay for what they did. I never knew what really happened beyond Kumo, Kiri, and Iwa attacking, but now I know the truth! The home Mito-baa-sama sent me to was just a den of liars, thieves, and traitors. But now we can do something about it!" She proclaimed.

"Wait... you saw what I saw? And what do you mean a 'permanent link'?" Naruto asked, not following.

"The reason we're here in the first place was because I put a sliver of each of our chakra's in the seal when I put the Kyuubi in you so that, when you unlock too many tails, I would appear to tighten the seal, and when you would one day _fight_ the Kyuubi for control of its chakra, Kushina-chan would appear. However, when you entered that machine, it flooded you with spiritual energy apparently containing the knowledge of this Kurotsuchi Mayuri, simultaneously passing it to you and revitalizing the tiny parts I put in here. Because of it, when we would normally disappear after helping you, we can stay, and we showed up much earlier. We're going to stand by you, sochi, to make Konoha pay! It pains me to see both that the people treated you the way they did and that they did that to our allies, and just like you, we found no justification for it, so we will help you." Minato explained, clapping a hand on Naruto's shoulder as Kushina nodded.

Tears were slowly forming in Naruto's eyes as he realized this; he could have his parents! Sure, they'd be in the seal with the Kyuubi, but he would have them! Nodding and smirking in determination, Naruto escaped his mothers grasp and turned to the Kyuubi. "And what's _your_ take on this, Kyuubi?" He asked, surprising everyone else that he asked such a thing.

 **"Why would you care what** _ **I**_ **think, ningen?"** Kyuubi demanded, glaring at the boy through narrowed eyes.

"Better to have enemies without than within. Plus, I'd figure you'd like the idea of me intending to destroy Konoha, given your... 'history' with it." Naruto admitted.

The Kyuubi just stared at him for the longest time, before suddenly breaking into a monstrous grin. **"You'd be right. I'd love nothing more than to see that pits destruction. If you stand by your promise, I will aid you in destroying each and every one of those bastards involved in my sealing. Everyone one else will just be icing on the cake. And I want you to destroy the pissant Uchiha who was at fault on that night, as well."** Kyuubi demanded.

Naruto raised a brow. "Uchiha?"

"I can explain that." Minato spoke up. "On the night you were born, a man calling himself Uchiha Madara attacked us and unsealed the Kyuubi from your mother. He used his Sharingan to control it to attack Konoha, and I fought him and broke the contract seal. After that, I had to face the Kyuubi and ultimately seal it in you." He explained.

"Oh, then I'm definitely killing that guy." Naruto agreed.

Kyuubi grinned again. **"Excellent. Then you have my support; I will give you my chakra when you need it, preferably when you use it to kill the people responsible. I don't care about your vendetta against the people that resulted in the destruction of that village, but I'm all for you killing them, and anyone else."** It said.

"I guess I'll take what I can get. Now, time to put this knowledge to work. Mayuri left many formulas and schematics for his inventions, both mechanical and chemical. In analyzing this 'Reiryoku', I can most definitely transfer the manipulations and techniques into using chakra. What crusade is without an army? I'll need to bring many others to the fold; I hold no delusions of being able to destroy Konoha just by myself, even _with_ Kyuubi's help." Naruto commented.

 **"Ningen... call me Kurama. You've earned the right to know my true name."** The Kyuubi spoke up.

"...Thank you... Kurama. I won't bother saying we can be friends, as you'll probably-" A scoff cut him off. "-do that, but we can be allies. Heck, according to some of this information, I may be able to give you a body outside of this seal." Naruto proclaimed, to wide eyes of all.

 **"...You'd better not be lying, gaki."** Kurama said lowly.

"Nope. According to this 'Artificial Soul' business, it's entirely possible. I just need to find a proper vessel. I can move your consciousness into an ingestible pill and insert it accordingly. Depends on the vessel you want, though; would you like something humanoid, or more bestial?" Naruto asked.

 **"Hmm... I would prefer bestial. I don't intend to become accommodated with a human form. Perhaps you can make it artificial as well, instead of flesh? I don't exactly desire the feeling of being splattered across the terrain like you humans are so easily want to do."** Kurama answered/slightly insulted.

Huffing at the jab, Naruto merely nodded. "Very well. An artificial bestial vessel it is."

"Oh, sochi-kun, I have a great idea!" Kushina spoke up, leaning in to whisper her plan to her son.

Raising a brow in confusion, Kurama merely shrugged it off; obviously they'd go for a fox-like body, so perhaps they were discussing specifics only these humans would care for. With that, Naruto laid his head on his paws and returned to sleep.

Completely unaware of the growing grin on Naruto's face and the stifled giggles from both parties, Minato joining in when he was let in on the plan.

 **(Reality)**

Awakening with a start, Naruto was thankful he didn't topple over when Kurama brought him into the seal. "Mmm. First things first, let's actually try out that summoning scroll. At least he went to the trouble of learning the seals for it; only makes sense for creating something like this. Might as well go all the way, turn local." He went back to the scroll and wrote his name in blood, going through the seals. **"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"** A large puff of smoke formed in front of Naruto, before it was swept away.

From the cloud came a 16-feet tall Hollow, bearing a fish-like mask that extended to armor its shoulders and arms, the rest of its body a dark green like the scales of a fish, a dorsal fin on its back. The hole in its chest was filled by what appeared to be a metal apparatus with chains digging into its skin in an X-shaped fashion; that was the control Mayuri used for permanent control to tie them to the scroll.

"You must be... Fishbone D." Naruto observed, as the Hollow looked on the cusp of going on a rampage, before it spied Naruto, or rather, his _soul._ Normally, it couldn't matter and it would attack, but it sensed the signature of...

 **"M-Ma... yuri...sama."** Fishbone D grunted, lower its arms and yielding to Naruto.

"Oho! Sapience! Most reports are of Hollows behaving as animals until they reach at least Adjuchas, but it is to be expected of summons. And referring to me as Mayuri-san... you're basically a malicious spirit, so is it because of my soul? The machine _did_ give me spiritual energy, and I suppose since it was laden with Mayuri's signature, it'd be passed to me." Naruto observed, knowing this would all go over the Hollows head. "Very well, I will call on you when needed. You are dismissed."

Without anything said, Fishbone D went up in smoke, returning to the pocket dimension Mayuri made specifically for these summonable Hollows.

"Well, that was easy. Not much more I can actually do about the scroll. Other than the one Gillian he got - there has to be _some_ proxy for Boss summons in here - perhaps I can attempt to tether higher-class Hollows to it myself. Mayuri tends to not go 100% if it proves too difficult or annoying, but me... oh I don't know _when_ to stop. But that will be for the future. For _now,_ we'll focus..." Naruto spun on his heel to face a child-sized stasis chamber. "...on you, Nel-chan." With a grin, Naruto walked over to the chamber, going over the information pertaining to its inhabitant.

Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, the ex-Tres Espada. After she somehow reverted to her adult form and helped the Shinigami attack Las Noches and the other Espada, Mayuri drugged her, changing her back, and took her in to be examined. He couldn't exactly do it the old-fashioned way, what with her strong **Hierro,** but scans provided more than enough data.

"Wake up, Nel-chan." Naruto said as he entered the code to open the chamber, stepping back as it slid open, cold vapor pouring out, as a shadow within became visible. Before she could fall, Naruto caught her, hefting the little girl up and bringing her over to a table to lie her on.

Green hair under a broken goat mask, a red mark across her cheeks and nose, and a green cloak defined her, her large brown eyes shut for the moment. Frowning as she shivered at the cold table, Naruto looked around until he found a blanket and pillow - probably sleeping arrangements for any live test subjects - and put his jacket under her to separate her from the table, setting her up with the pillow and blanket, smiling as she snuggled into them.

Left in his fishnet undershirt, Naruto looked for the next bit of business. Turning to another table, Naruto found a pair of hair pins and a ring. **"Shun Shun Rikka... Brazo Derecha de Gigante.** Very fascinating abilities; I can see why he created facsimiles. Question is who to give them to. Of course, allies brought into the fold, but also people they'd be appropriate to. Hmm..." Grabbing a pad of sticky notes and a pen, Naruto created two notes, sticking them to each jar.

 _Find someone with a good heart_

 _Find someone capable of defending and attacking_

Until then, he'd have to put them on the backburner. Seeing Nel was still asleep, he turned to a cabinet on the wall, opening it up to revealing 28 glass cubes. Just looking at them put a grin on Naruto's face. "Oh Mayuri-san, you had a contingency for everything, didn't you? To think, you did _this._ Oh, glorious." He commented, clapping his hands together.

Before him were what could be called 'consciousness copies' of the captains of the Gotei 13, their lieutenants, Urahara Kisuke, and Shihouin Yoruichi. In the event that too many of them were killed, if he could, Mayuri would use the copies to re-create them with pseudo-Gigai; as Gigai were made to hold souls, but consequently _weakened_ them, these Gigai would be permanent bodies, where they would have their full power always. Thankfully, Mayuri, being the clever bastard he was, changed them all slightly; they would all be loyal to him, and thus Naruto due to the spiritual energy thing that made the Hollow see him as Mayuri.

Infuriatingly, these would have to wait until he created the appropriate Gigai. Naruto gnashed his teeth. "Too much 'leave it for later', how about some 'do it now'?!" He complained, closing the cabinet and heading towards another table, covered in weapons he recognized as Quincy equipment, consisting of a generic Quincy Cross, which is actually a _pentacle_ but they were free to name their shit whatever, a Sanrei Glove, a Quincy Bangle to be used in conjunction with the equipment to better use their abilities - Mayuri found this world was actually _filled_ with some sort of energy exuded by nature, which was also the reason their dead didn't turn into Hollows, which could also be used in place of one's chakra, but you needed large reserves to even utilize it - a set of Gintou, and a Seele Schneider. Most of this existed because Mayuri wanted to see if it was possible; he obviously had no intent to use them, as was evident by the dust. "Finally! Something to do!"

"Actually, you can just have a clone do this while we train you." Minato's voice pervaded his thoughts, causing him to jump in shock and almost drop the stuff.

"T-tou-san?!" He yelled, looking around for Minato.

"In here, Naruto. I managed to tweak the seal so we can communicate with you while you're conscious."

"Hi sochi-kun!"

 **"Gaki."**

"Uh... hi, everyone? Well, this is great! Are you really going to teach me?" Naruto asked.

"Yep! We'll bring you up to the level you _should_ be by the end of the month; we'll crack down on your training, so you better be ready for pain." Minato answered.

"...I'm scared." Naruto admitted.

"As you should be. This will hurt. You may even hate us by the end of it, but that means it's working. We will beat you into the ground, pick you up, and beat you even harder until you can get up on your own and fight back. We will train in everything we can give you." Kushina pitched up, ignorant of or ignoring Naruto's paling face.

"Kurama... help..." He begged.

 **"I'm staying out of this. All I can do is give you chakra to keep you from dying."** Kurama said, feeling some sort of budding respect/a little bit of fear of these humans now.

"That just means it'll last longer!" Naruto exclaimed with waterfall tears.

"Oh stop complaining! We're starting now! Create a clone to do what you planned to in here and find either a training room or get outside!" Minato commanded, entering his 'sensei mode' from his Jounin days.

"Okay..." Naruto created a clone to do whatever it could in here and trudged to a training room he knew of thanks to the information in his head, heading towards his doom.

 **(One week later)**

For the first set of seven days, they focused primarily on what Kushina could teach him, which included taijutsu, ninjutsu, kenjutsu, and fuinjutsu. Seeing as Minato's taijutsu style involved liberal usage of the **Hiraishin no Jutsu,** they opted to train Naruto in Kushina's Uzuken, a style that centered on combining fluid movement with powerful counterattacks as well as rotating direct attacks. They abused _the shit_ out of the **Kage Bunshin,** having Kushina take over one - while **Henge** d into her so it wasn't weird - and teach the stances to 125 clones, three other groups of just as many clones for the other branches she could teach.

For the 'taijutsu clones', each and every single one of them went through the stances, building up muscle memory, which dealt with Naruto's mind and his reaction time to certain stimuli within a battle, thus clones could be used for it. Seeing as Naruto inherited both of their Wind affinities, she helped him with that, as well as a secondary Water affinity he got from her, training him in elemental manipulation, having a clone go outside and bring a bunch of leaves for wind and just having a deep tray full of water to use.

Halfway through the week, though, they discovered something interesting pertaining to Kushina and the zanpakutou-related knowledge Naruto had from Mayuri.

 **(Mindscape)**

"What's a zanpakutou spirit, and why are you asking me if I want to be yours, sochi-kun? What does that mean, anyway?" Kushina asked, head tilted in confusion.

"Mayuri is probably the second-most knowledgeable man in terms of zanpakutou knowledge, as he dealt with _fixing_ peoples zanpakutou, so I can use that knowledge to create an artificial zanpakutou for myself, and I asked you for poetic justice; as my zanpakutou spirit, you'd represent a weapon I would use against Konoha. Normally, you'd be in your own plane in my mind, and thus out of the mindscape, but as an artificial one, I can modify that as I wish, and thus you'll stay here. So, do you want to be my zanpakutou spirit, kaa-chan?" Naruto asked.

Smiling broadly, if a bit maliciously at the prospect of her hatred against Konoha being a physical weapon her son could use, before nodding. "Definitely! How do we do it?" She asked.

"You don't need to do anything; it's all on my end. I just came for your consent. I'll begin immediately; I can do it myself, anyway, so no need to waste clones." Naruto answered, before fading and getting to work.

 **(Reality)**

Naruto took an 'empty' zanpakutou from the cabinet full of them on the wall, Mayuri having them so his clones could have his **Ashisogi Jizou,** another 'copy' he managed to create, though there could only be one at any time in this dimension. Of course, the spiritual container that _held_ the Ashisogi Jizou was gone, but that was fine; Naruto had the replacement, his mother.

Closing his eyes and concentrating on the new spiritual sensing ability he had, Naruto eventually was able to discern his parents souls from his own, and 'grabbed' his mothers, putting it into the sword, while simultaneously keeping a bridge so she would stay in the seal instead of being separated. It took some doing, and Naruto's spiritual energy manipulation was pushed to its breaking point, but he did it.

In a flash of spiritual energy, the sword, once Mayuri's sealed zanpakutou, changed form to Naruto's artificial zanpakutou.

The blade was completely black, even the normally-silver edge, and the spiky 'guard' became a more contemporary circular one, though the design of a whirlpool was visible, and the hilt turned black, but formed a red cloth around it, a golden tassel hanging off the bottom of the hilt.

"Hey, it's my sword!" Kushina commented once the blade formed, not having experienced anything in the seal.

"How do you mean?" Naruto asked with a raised brow, looking over the marvelous weapon.

"When I was alive, this was the weapon I used that got me the title of the Aka Shi (Red Death), my Beni Mayonaka! (Crimson Midnight)" Kushina explained with a fond smile at the memory of her sword.

"Hmm, poetic, how your sword became my zanpakutou that contains you. Though, _as_ a zanpakutou, it would have a shikai and bankai, and thus a name. As the spirit, you should know it. Is there a name in your mind that suddenly appeared?" Naruto asked, giddy at this development.

"Hmm... I... I hear a name. I feel like it should be _my_ name, but I know it's not. It's... **Hahaoya no Ikari."** Kushina said after a bit of an identity crisis.

Naruto chuckled heartily at the poetry of the name. "Hilarious. Very well then. Now for my side; the command. Hmm..." He closed his eyes again, this time sitting down in a lotus position, zanpakutou across his lap, as he attempted to synch his spiritual wavelength with it in order to learn the command to activate its shikai.

There was a large flame - Naruto - and a small one before him - Hahaoya no Ikari - and a great expanse of darkness between them, even as the arms of Naruto's flickering flame attempted to reach out. Just when he was about to give up - having Mayuri's knowledge also plagued him with his temperament, and thus the propensity to give up on the current course and try another, possibly more painful method - a third flame appeared in the figurative emptiness, red as blood, next to Naruto's flame, and their arms intertwined, creating a violet flame that surged towards the flame that represented Hahaoya no Ikari.

 _'Even when I wanted to give up, you were there for me. Even when I can't do it by myself, you were there. You were by my side...'_ Naruto reminisced, before the connection was made, and his eyes snapped open, a grin slowly forming on his face as he climbed to his feet. **"Watashino gawade tatte kudasai, Hahaoya no Ikari!" (Stand by my side, Mother's Wrath)** His sword went up in a flash of light, before splitting in two, allowing him to grab them, before they died down and revealed the shikai of his artificial zanpakutou.

A pair of uniquely-shaped scimitars, one light green, the other blue, the blades were serrated, formed with segments that intersected like Celtic knots, having flat tips instead of being pointed, an orb at each pommel, the blue one filled with churning water, the green a miniature-tornado.

Zanpakutou normally couldn't have control over more than one element, but they also couldn't be formed from a human soul, and not having their own mental plane, so Naruto was breaking all sorts of rules here. Naturally, he didn't care.

"Oh! Oh-ho-ho! This... this is a weird experience. I'll have to get used to dual blades, _and_ using scimitars, as opposed to a katana." Naruto commented, even as he swung the blades around like they were a part of him. Of course, that was a given seeing as it was his zanpakutou, but his _body_ needed to get used to using them.

"We can do that in kenjutsu training, though we'll have to get rid of any thrusts and stabs." Kushina commented.

"Agreed. With all that out of the way, let us return to training." Minato finally spoke up, having opted to merely observe the proceedings.

Agreeing, Naruto re-sealed his zanpakutou and returned to the training room.

 **(Three days later)**

By the end of the week, Nel woke up, and Kushina let Naruto go to her personally instead of letting the clone still in the lab deal with her. Good news, though: the clone had already finished half of the Gigai necessary for the Gotei 13 captains, their lieutenants, and the two interesting people in Mayuri's experience, and it managed to _procure_ the vessel Kushina recommended for Kurama. He'd save that for later, probably at the end of the month.

"Keep up the work." Naruto said to the clone, who opted for a white lab coat while it was here - hilariously appropriate - as he approached the waking Nel.

Little Nel yawned something fierce, her mouth opening wide enough to probably eat someone's head, stretching and arching her back off the table in a way that almost looked painful, before she flopped back down and smacked her lips, a lazy smile on her face. She looked around before she found an actual person. "Hiya! I'm Nel. Who're you?" She asked.

"I'm Naruto. How are you feeling?" The blonde asked.

"Hmm... Nel's sleepy... more than I probably should be. Bit cold, even with this blanket. Where is Nel, anyway?" The verdette asked innocently.

 _'Aaand immediately with the difficult question...'_ "Nel-chan... You're... not home. Do you remember Hueco Mundo? Ichigo and his friends?" Naruto asked tentatively.

"Hmm? Nel remembers... Hueco Mundo. And... Ichigo!" Nel said with a bright grin at the memory of the strawberry. "Then... Nel remembers creepy doctor. Then Nel wake up here. Where is Nel, Naruto-onii-san?" she asked, immediately latching onto him as a brother-figure.

Naruto gave a strained smile. "Ah, that would be Mayuri-san. Mayuri... took you, and brought you here, to study you. He did... science things, then he put you to sleep. According to several notes lying around, it's been a couple years since then." He explained carefully, taking into account her current mental state.

"Creepy science man took Nel? Whhhhyyy?" The verdette asked, already on the verge of tears as she quickly put together that she might not be able to see Ichigo again. She latched onto Naruto, bawling her eyes out on his shoulder.

Holding her and letting her cry it out, Naruto felt extreme guilt, as he could actually create Mayuri's **Garganta-** creating machine to get her access to Hueco Mundo, and then her friends; heck, she could do it herself if she ever regressed to her adult state. But then that would create all sorts of trouble by interacting with the people of that dimension, and that was something he didn't want. And thus, he withheld this information from the girl. "You are a very special girl, Nel-chan, and Mayuri wanted to understand you. Your abilities, your condition, your disposition in respect to what you are, it all intrigued him, and when something interests Mayuri... he has to have it. I'm sorry." He explained.

Naruto would be the first to admit Mayuri, in all his brilliance, was completely insane, maybe homicidally so, and most of the things he didn't weren't always defined as 'good', _says the child soldier._ Heck, he replaced the organs of most of his division with _explosives_ as a 'security precaution'; did that say sane to you?!

"Hic... S-so Nel is all alone?" Nel asked, voice blubbery.

"No, Nel-chan, you're not alone; you have me. I'll be your friend." Naruto countered with a warm smile.

"But onii-san, you said science-man was inter... intri... wanted to know about what Nel was; doesn't that mean _you_ know what Nel is? Aren't you afraid?" Nel asked, knowing at least the simple fact that a human would fear her kind if they knew about her.

"No Nel-chan, I'm not afraid of you. Like I said, I want to be your friend." Naruto answered.

"Will you be Nel's onii-san?" Nel asked with wonderment in her voice, stars in her eyes.

Naruto chuckled. "Yes, I'll be your onii-san." He agreed.

Nel merely squealed and hugged him around his neck.

"Ooooh, Naru-chan, make me a clone! I wanna meet Nel-chan; she's so adorable!" Kushina demanded, squealing within the seal.

Minato chuckled beside her. "It would probably be for the best if she met all of us, so she won't keep asking questions when you talk to yourself, or she see's Kushina training your clones." He pointed out.

 _'Agreed.'_ "Nel-chan, I want you to meet some people close to me that I think you'll like." Naruto said, putting her back on the makeshift bed on the table.

"Who, onii-san?" Nel asked with a tilt of her head.

Saying nothing, Naruto merely created two clones, having them possessed by his parents and transformed into them. "These are my parents, Nel-chan." He introduced them.

Kushina immediately attacked Nel with affection, picking the girl up in a hug and nuzzling her head with her cheek, squealing all the while. "Ooooh, you're just as adorable in person as you are from the seal!" She commented, Naruto and Minato off to the side, chuckling.

"Where did you come from, kaa-chan? Why did you and tou-san look like onii-san?" Nel asked through the affection.

"Kaa-chan?" Kushina asked with a hopeful smile.

"Tou-san?" Minato parroted quizzically, merely curious; as a man, he would not give in to the cute. _Never again..._

"Onii-san is onii-san, so his kaa-chan and tou-san are Nel's kaa-chan and tou-san!" Nel explained with her 'logic.'

Minato merely took it in stride, smiling and shrugging, while Kushina squeal again and renewed her nuzzling.

"Now, the reason they looked like me for a second was because this world is very different from yours, Nel-chan. We use a different energy, and it allows us to do all sorts of things, including create clones. I created two clones, and my parents spirits - usually residing in my seal - possessed them and transformed - another technique we can do - into them. My parents aren't actually alive anymore, and a special thing happened that let me meet them now." Naruto explained as best he could, considering her current mental state.

"What happened to kaa-chan and tou-san?" Nel asked innocently, ignorant as everyone around her suddenly stiffened, before they forced themselves to relax, and relayed a silent conversation through eye contact, culminating in agreeing nods.

"On the night I was born, a... giant _monster_ attacked my home, and they sacrificed their lives to defeat it by putting it inside of me. They also left part of themselves so I would meet them one day." Naruto explained, again dumbing it down for her, apologizing to Kurama, who huffed at being called a 'monster.'

"So... kaa-chan and tou-san are in your tummy?" Nel asked, to chuckles all around.

"Yes, they're in the seal on my stomach. But now I can be with them; would you like to be a part of our family, Nel-chan?" Naruto asked.

Nel answered by shooting off of Kushina like a little rocket and latching onto Naruto, giggling when he tried to stay on his feet. "Onii-san!"

 **(The next week)**

Tending to Nel's curiosity, and letting her go out and look around, under the supervision of clones and Tazuna's family, who loved her just as much as Naruto and his parents, was relatively easy compared to what the blonde had to do. Training under his father was more arduous than under his mother; maybe it was because he was a Jounin sensei, and thus had to deal with a bevy of personalities to face while teaching, maybe it was because he was the Hokage, and thus had to be strong and stern with people. Either way, Minato was a task-master when you were training under him.

Minato taught Naruto what he could of elemental jutsu, which involved what he could add to Naruto's Wind arsenal, and expanding it with Raiton, but the culmination of his training involved teaching his son the **Rasengan,** and attempting to teach him the **Hiraishin no Jutsu.** Thanks to the chakra control exercises Kushina hammered into him, Naruto was able to perform the former technique in one hand in just a single day. More than once, they were surprised by the sheer potential Naruto was capable of, and the capacity to learn and reproduce the results, which was amplified by Mayuri's intelligence and ability to analyze things he observed. The **Hiraishin,** on the other hand, continued to elude the blonde with its complexity, as it required Naruto to be knowledgeable in fuinjutsu as much as Kushina and Minato, and that would take more than the three weeks they now had, so they would unfortunately have to sack that technique for now.

Halfway through the week, however, was when things got interesting, as the clone ordered to create the 28 Gigai had managed to streamline the process and complete them sooner than expected, but _something_ it sensed topside stayed Naruto's hand to recreate the Shinigami, and thus he went up to investigate.

There they were, just as he remembered them. It had been nearly a month since he saw them, since they died. He approached them.

"Zabuza... Haku..." Naruto said simply, as if he couldn't believe they were here.

 _"Gaki? You can see us?"_ Zabuza asked from his spot atop his Kubikiribouchou, used as a gravestone.

 _"How is that possible, Naruto-kun?"_ Haku asked, polite and friendly even in death.

"Some things happen, and now I can see the dead. It's a matter of spiritual energy, let's leave it there. More importantly, do you want to live again?" Naruto asked, immediately going through a plan he hatched the second he saw them. He _did_ say he needed an army, and these two could be the first soldiers. Discreetly creating a clone behind him, already transformed into a fly so the smoke wouldn't be noticed, and dispelling it, relayed his orders to the Giga-making clone to make two more.

Zabuza scoffed. _"Hell yeah, I'd like to be alive again. I came here to make money for the resistance to bring down the Mizukage, and here I am... dead."_

 _"I, too, would like the be alive again, but that is obviously impossible. Why do you ask, Naruto-kun?"_ Haku asked.

Naruto merely smiled. "Follow me. I'll be bringing the sword, too, for you, Zabuza." He said, walking over to Zabuza's grave.

 _"Well, seeing as I can't do anything about it, I guess I have no choice. What for, though?"_ Zabuza asked, getting off his sword and following the blonde beside Haku, surprised when he could carry it with ease.

"You'll see~" Was all Naruto said as he lead them to the secret entrance, taking the chute down and landing on his feet this time.

"GaaaaAAAAAAAHHH!" Zabuza's yell was heard as he came down the slide, completely unprepared for it, and thus he landed in a heap beside Naruto, Haku landing on her feet with ease, possibly mocking Zabuza with her grace.

 _"Are you alright, Zabuza-sama?"_ Haku asked worriedly; while she accepted that Zabuza no longer saw her as a tool, old habits die hard.

 _"Ugh... what's with the slide, gaki? Did you- where the hell are we?"_ Zabuza asked once he got to his feet and looked around the underground lab. _"What the hell have you been up to, gaki?"_

"It's a long story; first things first, step in." Naruto gestured to the two genderless corpse-looking forms at his feet.

 _"...Huh?"_ Zabuza asked with the razor edge of his wit.

 _"Step. In._ Just lie down right over them, and you'll be absorbed into them. You'll be alive again. While I would want to have modified them so you wouldn't require such things as sleep or food, I kept those features in so you can feel 100% alive again; all that's different is you're _much_ tougher. You'll also have your chakra reserves back, as they will change to fit the soul injected into them." Naruto went on a bit of a tirade when talking about the Gigai.

 _"...Huh?"_ Truly a riveting conversationalist, that Zabuza.

Rather than wait for Naruto's rapidly thinning patience to allow him to answer, Haku took the initiative and laid down on one of the bodies, sinking into it as she did, before going completely flat, the glow of her translucent form fading as she was absorbed into it, before it shrank to accommodate her dimensions and formed clothes and hair.

The Haku-double opened its eyes, and took in a deep gulp of hair, before bringing a hand over the location of the wound that took her life, finding unblemished skin and cloth. "I'm... I'm alive again." She tested her newly reacquired vocal cords.

Zabuza, seeing the miracle before him, stepped over to the other body and went through the same process, the Gigai changing until it looked exactly like Momochi Zabuza, nuke-nin of Kirigakure no Sato. Naruto quickly put his sword beside him so he could have it again.

Zabuza's eyes flew open, and he breathed in air he never thought he'd feel again, bringing his hand up to find it wasn't see-through anymore. "It's real... we're alive again. Gaki... what _the hell_ happened since we've been gone?" He demanded.

Merely nodding, Naruto went over everything that happened since they died. Returning to the village, the Chuunin Exams, facing Orochimaru of the Sannin, the preliminaries, and the month of training until the final round, Kakashi abandoning him to train Sasuke. After that, he mentioned coming back to Nami to find an underground place to train, and then stumbling into a machine that gave him the knowledge of a technically-dead guy from another dimension, finding information that pegged Konoha as traitors of Uzushiogakure, including his once-beloved jii-san, and training under his parents that were sealed into him alongside the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

Haku fainted.

"Hmm... well, that's some heavy shit, gaki. And you want us to join your army to one day get back at Konoha? Hell yeah, I'm down with that! I want my revenge on Hatake, then I'm gonna go to Kiri to finish my business." Zabuza said, raising his cleaver of a sword as if it were a pitchfork.

"All in good time, Zabuza. We still have over two weeks until the finals, and I still think Orochimaru has something planned for then, so there's that. Until then, I'll be training under my parents and in the Quincy equipment Mayuri-san left. However, now that the Gigai are finished, I can bring him and his colleagues here; I'll wait until the end of the week for that, though. Make yourselves at him; I'll be returning to training." Naruto said, waving at them as he left for the training room.

"Hold on! Training under the Aka Shi? You bet I'm getting in on this!" Zabuza said, ignoring Haku's giggle at his slight fanboyism.

 _'Uh... Kaa-san?'_ Naruto silently asked.

"Sure, Naru-chan, Zabuza can join! I enjoyed having my own student once, so this'd be nice again." Kushina responded with her normal exuberance.

 _'You had a student before?'_ Naruto asked, not having been told that.

"Yes, I taught a boy by the name of Gekkou Hayate kenjutsu." Kushina explained simply.

 _'Gekkou Hayate? Hey, that was the coughing proctor from the preliminaries!'_ Naruto realized.

"A cough? Oh yeah, I heard he got caught in a poison trap on a mission and developed it; I think the doctor said it was permanent. Poor boy." Kushina pouted at her ex-students condition.

 _'Hmm... maybe... We'll see.'_ Naruto had a conversation with himself as two ideas formed in his head immediately, put away for now. "Okay Zabuza, kaa-san gave you the okay. Prepare to cry, though." He warned the swordsman.

"Uh... y-you're kidding, right?" Zabuza asked, suddenly very afraid.

"Nope!" A feminine voice answered as they stepped into the bunker-like room, a grinning redhead meeting his gaze.

Naruto came over and pat Zabuza on the shoulder consolingly. "Good luck, Zabuza." He said, before walking over to the clones training with Minato.

The end of the week came fast enough, and thus the prophesied time of the technically Gotei 13 captains 'and guests' had come. Naruto walked into the lab, finding Haku doting on an unconscious, bruise-ridden Zabuza on the ground. _'I told him to prepare to cry...'_ Naruto mentally commented with a shrug, heading towards the cabinet that held the soul-copies of the 28 Shinigami. Taking them out and bringing them over delicately, Naruto created 27 clones and gave each of them a cube, joining them in pressing them against the chests of the Gigai, shattering the cubes and letting the souls sink in, dispelling the clones and stepping back as they each transformed and grew or shrunk.

Yamamoto Genryuusai Shigekuni, Sasakiba Choujirou Tadaoki, Soifon, Omaeda Nikkoutarouemon Yoshiayamenosuke Marechiyo, Ichimaru Gin, Kira Izuru, Unohana Retsu, Kotetsu Isane, Aizen Sousuke, Hinamori Momo, Kuchiki Byakuya, Abarai Renji, Sajin Komamura, Iba Tetsuzaemon, Kyouraku no Jirou Souzousuke Shunsui, Ise Nanao, Tousen Kaname, Hisagi Shuuhei, Hitsugaya Toushirou, Matsumoto Rangiku, Zaraki Kenpachi, Kusajishi Yachiru, Kurotsuchi Mayuri, Nemu, Ukitake Juushirou, Shiba Kaien, Urahara Kisuke, and Shihouin Yoruichi.

Naruto watched as they went through the same motions as Zabuza and Haku, opening their eyes, breathing, looking at themselves, before turning to Naruto. It got a bit awkward when they all got down on one knee and bowed to him.

"MAYURI-SAMA."

"Uh... call me Naruto." The blonde said awkwardly.

"NARUTO-SAMA."

"Oh you think you're just hilarious, don't you? Okay, everyone get up." Naruto commanded with an exasperated gesture.

They all stood up robotically and stared at him. Naruto was pretty sure they weren't breathing.

"Shit, I forgot about this; Mayuri-san may be fine with this, but to me, it's just creepy. There's probably a note in that cabinet about this. Wait... Mayuri-san?" Naruto wondered experimentally.

"Yes, Naruto-sama?" Mayuri answered flatly.

"What's the command to allow you all to retain your personalities?" Naruto asked, not able to sift through all the knowledge for the finer details of most things, including this.

"That would be 3487-Q14." Mayuri recited, before everyone's shoulders sagged and they started to act like their normal selves.

"Ugh... what the hell happened?" The gigantic Kenpachi asked as he rubbed his sore neck, even as Yachiru clambered onto his shoulder.

"I believe my _Soma_ project, you ape, strangely in the Shinno dimension I found years ago." Mayuri answered him with his usual biting remarks.

"I suppose that is what you named this world?" Naruto asked with a bit of amusement. Shinno, shinobi, definitely Mayuri's brand of 'humor'; _soma_ itself meant 'body' according to an ancient language from his human world counterpart, Greek he believed it was called.

"Yes it is, Naruto-sama. I trust, with your being here, that you stumbled upon the lab and used my machine to give you my knowledge?" Mayuri asked.

"That is indeed what happened. I came here two weeks ago, and my clone finished the Gigai halfway during this week, but I wanted to leaving waking you all up until the end, when this week's training finished." Naruto explained.

"Clones? After-images, yes?" Soifon asked.

"Nope, solid clones. In my world, we are able to create solid clones made of the elements, or in my case, chakra itself." Naruto explained.

"...Mind explaining?" Kisuke asked, having never heard of a solid clone technique, or this 'chakra.'

Sighing, Naruto went on to explain, with Kurama's help, the Rikudou Sennin who gave people chakra, physical and spiritual energy, which the people used to create ninjutsu, which consisted of manipulating the five elements, and fantastical things such as defying the laws of physics, manipulating states of matter, and manipulating the self, such as creating clones.

"Hmm, I knew of most of these things beforehand, but nothing about this Sage; I'm tempted to say he appears to be fiction, but given the hearsay of your 'bijuu', he was very real, correct?" Mayuri asked.

Naruto winced and held his head. "Y-yeah, he was real. Kurama also says to never say the Rikudou Sennin was fake, or he'll... do things." He relayed.

"My apologies, Naruto-sama." Mayuri said with a bow, the reaction reflexive due to the programming the original Mayuri put in.

"Uh, no problem." Naruto said, feeling a bit weirded out.

"More to the point, you obviously animated us for a purpose, yes?" Yamamoto spoke up.

Naruto chuckled, amused that the Captain-Commander saw right through him. "Yes, Genryuusai-san, I woke you all up for a purpose. I seek an army for a crusade." And so, Naruto filled them in on his early childhood, leading up to the information he found on the computer pertaining to Konoha's betrayal of their own ally, _his_ clan.

"Deplorable, to leave a child to fend for himself, thrust into a world brewing with hatred. These Konoha dogs must perish!" Genryuusai commented with a slam of his cane.

"Just drop me in; I'll slaughter 'em all!" Kenpachi offered with a bloodthirsty grin.

"Ah, but you won't settle for such an easy answer." Aizen commented with a conspiratorial smile.

"Of course not, Aizen-san; I will make them rue the day they sought to scorn me. It will be a slow vengeance, like a poison, weakening them from within as I convert their numbers to mine; I'm sure to find several people who would join me. With you 28 brought to 'life', I can already enact a plan or two. First things first, Yoruichi, Soifon." Naruto said, turning to the former and current Onmitsukidou heads.

"Yes, Naruto-sama!" Both women straightened up and faced him, having previously been chatting away.

"I want both of you to go out and make as much money as you can in bounty hunting; I believe you two are the best for this work. And, whenever you choose, I want you to go to each of the five 'Great' Hidden Villages and copy their jutsu libraries; you will be able to leave your bodies like normal Gigai, but only for thirty minutes." Naruto ordered.

"Thank you for your belief in us, Naruto-sama; we will do this to the best of our ability. If I may ask, what will you need the money and 'jutsu' for?" Soifon asked respectfully.

"I'll be using it to buy an expanse of land for all of us to live in in Konoha, remaking the Uzumaki compound for kaa-san. And the jutsu will be for I and any shinobi we bring to our side to learn." Naruto answered. "And Mayuri-san, I'll need your mind to aid me in several of the original Mayuri-san's designs, specifically his formulas and more complex inventions." He added.

Mayuri gave his trademark terrifyingly wide grin. "Of course, Naruto-sama, I'd be happy to help." He answered.

"Excellent. Now, everyone come to receive your zanpakutou; I believe they will transform to match yours as opposed to the process that got me my own." Naruto gestured them over.

"You have a zanpakutou of your own, Naruto-sama? How did you go about this?" Mayuri said as everyone followed Naruto, intrigued by this information.

"Physically, it was easy, but the theory took half a week to get down. Ultimately, I took one of the empty zanpakutou and was able to visually separate my mother's soul from my own and connect it to the sword, without moving her there completely, so she could stay with my father. My mother acts as both herself and my zanpakutou spirit." Naruto explained.

"Fascinating; a human soul as a zanpakutou spirit. I never would have thought of it. Tell me, were there any complications, physical or mental on Kushina-san?" Mayuri asked.

"Mostly a tiny moment of identity crisis, but kaa-san managed to work it out. There was a bit of difficulty in ultimately unlocking my shikai, but that was surmounted soon enough." Naruto answered.

"Absolutely intriguing, and what does your zanpakutou entail?" Mayuri wondered.

"I wasn't able to train in it yet - that will probably start next week - but as far as I can tell, it entails water and wind." Naruto relayed.

"Impossible. In all records of zanpakutou, even ones attempted in experiments by Mayuri, no zanpakutou can manipulate more than one element." Yamamoto denied.

"Well, no zanpakutou has been powered by a human soul, has it? Besides, seeing as it _is_ powered by my mother, it represents a part of her, and the wind and water possibly represent her home, Uzushiogakure, and the whirlpools that surround it." Naruto countered.

"Hmm... perhaps. This human zanpakutou business could open the way to all sorts of theories pertaining to zanpakutou spirits." The Captain-Commander pondered with a stroke of his beard.

"Yes, I thought the same thing when I succeeded. Are the zanpakutou human souls converted into the beings we know them as? If so, where did these people come from? Who were they? Were they connected to who their Shinigami were when they were alive?" Naruto questioned, silencing the rabble of the other Shinigami following him. "None of you remember who you were as humans, do you?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"No. No tests, physical or psychological, have been able to dredge up our memories; at least none I've done." Mayuri answered.

"And obviously your zanpakutou don't have the answers." Naruto commented, receiving negative shakes of the head all around. "Then there may be nothing we can do, as well." He said with a sigh, even as he opened the large cabinet filled with empty swords and handed them out, watching as each Shinigami communed with their zanpakutou in their own way, each blade transforming to match the originals.

"Excellent. Now, before you all find your accommodations, there's one thing left for you to do." Naruto said with a grin.

"What would that be, Naruto-sama?" Unohana asked demurely.

"Time for you to meet the family."

End Ch. 1

So yeah, a couple things to go over. Obviously, this is a Vengeful!Naruto, so there will be some minor bashing, and some characters who are more towards the evil side of the grey area, but not outright evil; obviously, 'for the greater good' nonsense, but there will be some moments when it appears to be outright spitefulness. The rainbow of human nature! :D

Also, Naruto won't be completely dark, there'll be some good parts of him, including a bit **jacke44** just mentioned that I liked (guy's just _overflowing_ with ideas, seriously, it's great; I love people like that, imagination at its peak, or for those of you who watched ToQger, IMAGINATIOOOOOOONNNN!)

Still haven't finished ToQger... hate when I do that.

Anyway, as you can see, small army of the Gotei 13 captains, their lieutenants, and our favorite exiles, Quincy armament, Shun Shun Rikka and Chad's Fullbring in reserve for special people, artificial zanpakutou, 'alive' Zabuza and Haku, shit's all over the place.

And I fucking love it.

Have I gushed enough yet? I'm not sure.

Anyway, just to warn you guys, this will be a harem, as per the challenge, so that's out of my hands if it annoys you. The definitive harem is Hinata, Nemu, Anko, Soifon, Nanao, Momo, and Rangiku. I think that's everything so, as always, tell me what you think.

Ja ne!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Okay, so, a majority of people loved the first chapter, and thus the premise of this story; this is good. Of course, there were some people who didn't like it; understandable. Some were nice about it, others not so much. I'll be addressing some of those here.

The harem, Evil!Konoha/Sandaime, solely Mayuri's knowledge being given to Naruto, Vengeful!Naruto, stuff like that I _cannot_ change, they are explicitly part of the challenge. For those of you waiting for a change that fixes those, you won't be getting them; I'm sorry. The pacing of the first chapter... someone said it felt rushed, but also that if it was more slowed down, it would feel choppy, so that'd be a problem as well. Personally, I can't really think of any sort of middle ground for the pacing that won't result in a large amount of content already up being chopped and moving to the next chapter, so I'm sorry for that as well. Someone said I was portraying Mayuri as a good guy, when he is clearly not that great a person in canon. I agree that he is a legitimate horrible person in Bleach, but this... let's call him, and the others, clone(s), is _not_ completely Kurotsuchi Mayuri. The man himself would probably recognize his behavior is especially volatile (and most likely not give a single fuck) but having that attitude and behavior in a _subordinate_ would be counter-productive, as well as many other characters, like Kenpachi, or even Yamamoto. Seeing their 'master' is Mayuri would rub them the wrong way, though having subsequent Mayuri's under him would be a bit of a grey area to think about (would they listen, would they believe _they_ should be in charge? Questions for another time and another person with the patience to think about it) and keeping Mayuri's tendency to hurt Nemu or use her for experiments or as a meat shield would be injuring _another_ subordinate, so that was fixed as well. Plus, it's not like Mayuri and Naruto were 100% merged; just the formers intelligence, and scumbag or not, you have to admit he's a genius.

Again, I am sorry if this all rubs you the wrong way, and I understand if you no longer want to read this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach

"Human speech"

 _'Human thought'_

 **"Jutsu/Demon speech"**

 _ **'Demon thought'**_

Let's begin

Just yesterday, Naruto had revived the captains of the Gotei 13, their lieutenants, and a pair of exiles, accommodated them to this world, introduced them to 'the family', first Haku doting over an injured Zabuza from his training with Kushina - Kenpachi asked if he wanted to fight, and the Kirigakure no Kijin scuttled away like a crab, screaming refusals and the lack of sanity in Naruto's mother; how rude - then his parents and Nel-chan. Just before that, Naruto swore them to never mention the **Garganta's** ability to travel to their dimension so she could indeed meet her friends, as he didn't want to deal with the hassle of everything he had been working on coming to light.

It was a bit hilarious when Naruto got to introducing Mayuri, as Kushina thanked him profusely, citing his machine as the reason she was able to be in her sons life, and _hugged_ the poor man; everyone was sure they heard his spine crack.

Minato thanked them as well, though more respectful of their personal space, and offered to spar with Yoruichi and Soifon when they weren't bounty-hunting, one speedy fighter to another, while Kushina took Kenpachi's offer of a spar... they had to repair the bunker every time they fought.

Retsu took care of Nel while they fought, her normal motherly qualities making her a wonderful guardian as they watched the Shinigami and shinobi fight, Naruto having finally caved in and making Gigai for them; even though they originally said they were fine with being in clones, they didn't refuse, and they enjoyed having bodies of their own again. There was a bit of a complication every time Naruto wanted to train in his zanpakutou and Kushina was in her Gigai, but they found a quick remedy when she left it and the problem stopped.

Mayuri theorized it had something to do with her new physical body dampening the connection between her and the zanpakutou, and thus either it didn't manifest, or she fell into what they realized was the actual spirit of her zanpakutou self, Hahaoya no Ikari. Eh, nothing went perfectly, so this was almost to be expected, and as mentioned before, solved easily enough.

Yoruichi and Soifon went through a cycle of bounty-hunting, coming back to bring the money, relaxing or sparring with Minato, and going back out. As expected, they were absolutely wonderful at it, and hadn't failed once, quickly racking up an exorbitant amount of money for Naruto's plan. They also eventually went to Konoha, Iwa, Suna, Kiri, and Kumogakure and copied all their jutsu libraries, leaving their bodies well outside of the village and slipping in quite easily since they were invisible to the living, bringing them back for Naruto's plan.

Speaking of which, Naruto and Mayuri spent most of their days collaborating in the lab, the latter tutoring the former in the original Mayuri's inventions and formula's, as Naruto requested.

Almost immediately, Naruto put away the Nikubakudan, as he wasn't one for leaving biological bombs in his subordinates. The Hojiku-Zai, however, was interesting, though the pain was unwanted, but there was no work-around at the moment. The Surveillance-Use Bacteria would go a _long_ way to benefiting him, so he would inject it in people in interest for the foreseeable future to gather information on them. The Superhuman Drug, Thought Inhibitor Drug, and Nerve Freezing Agent would be used for torture, obviously, until he could find some way to streamline the diluting process for personal use for the former. Anti-Shadow Clothing... probably only useful if he ever went against Shikamaru for some reason, or anyone who can use shadows for that matter. And the Postcognition Drug would be a last resort thing if he ever faced someone that he thought would surely kill him, though it'd be a bit of a gamble if they decided a part of their brain shutting down was worth killing him, or they had someone who could, _somehow,_ undo it in some way. Thanks to their combined genius, they were able to get through all that in under an hour.

The most interesting thing, however, was when Naruto had to return to Konoha to restock himself with kunai and shuriken, as Nami no Kuni didn't have a blacksmith of some sort, and he happened upon a most _interesting_ scene.

 **(Konoha)**

It was relatively late at night when Naruto finally made it to Konoha, signing into the East Gate with Izumo and Koutetsu - _'Possible allies, have to look into it.' -_ and heading straight to Higurashi's Forge via roof-hopping, when he sensed two signatures near the Exam Stadium in battle. Confident in his newfound strength, Naruto quickly changed course and headed that way, happening upon his mothers old student, Gekkou Hayate, fighting what appeared to be Gaara's Jounin sensei. When Hayate got his katana stuck in Baki's vest and the turban-wearing man appeared to be about to kill him with some technique, Naruto acted fast, creating a clone and having it switch places with Hayate, thankful his new heightened control made it possible, the cough-stricken Jounin appearing by his side as the clone was killed by a blade of wind.

Not giving him an explanation, Naruto rushed Baki with a hoard of clones, his newly enhanced... _everything_ allowing them to survive longer than a few seconds against a Jounin, though many still died. Hayate eventually joined in, falling into step with Naruto and deploying several pincer tactics that got several hits in, Hayate eventually taking over and pushing Baki back, the Suna Jounin on his last legs.

"Hayate!" Naruto yelled a warning, running forward just as the Jounin jumped up, **Rasengan** blazing to life in his hand, his surprising speed taking Baki off-guard, letting the blonde shove the grinding orb of chakra straight into his stomach, sending the Jounin flying back and spinning, until he hit a wall, the pain and impact knocking him right out.

Upon checking his pulse, finding he was still alive, Hayate flared his chakra, an ANBU appearing to take Baki to Ibiki for interrogation, and turned to Naruto, taking his katana out and stabbing it into the ground before him, kneeling at it.

"Uh... what're you doing?" Naruto asked, confused.

"Awww, Hayate-chan remembered!" Kushina remarked.

"I do this for repentance of my folly. I knew of the prejudice against you, and the actions of the people against you, and I did nothing, for I thought it did not concern me, even when my soul ate away at me and my body failed me. In saving my life, you only show me the mistake I made; as such, I swear fealty to you, Naruto-san, both for that and my sensei's words to both protect you and repay someone if they saved my life." Hayate answered without raising his head.

Naruto frowned at the beginning; 'evil only triumphs when good men do nothing' indeed. But this repentance, and Kushina's words he apparently 'remembered' brought a great opportunity. "Very well. Meet me at the East Gate and we'll do something about this." He said.

Merely nodding, Hayate left for the gate, kicking himself for his laziness. He had always hated what the civilians did to Naruto - overcharging him, thrusting their hatred on an innocent child, even a few assaults and outright denial to sell stuff to him, it all infuriated him - but... he did nothing. It was like it was in a different world to him, that it didn't concern him. But it did. He was Kushina-sensei's son, and she told him to protect him should anything happen to her, and he failed her, and him. But this was his chance.

Stopping off at Higurashi's for shinobi weapons, Naruto also stopped off at the Hokage Tower, feeding the Sandaime - now making an effort to hide his fury-filled sneer - half-truths and non-sequitur's about his training, eventually asking Hayate to join him to Nami, putting on the guilt-trip since Kakashi abandoned him for the shitty Ebisu, and citing his recent aid to the Jounin, eventually getting a letter to give to the Jounin that gave him a C-rank mission to escort Naruto to his training area in Nami.

Heading to the Gate and wordlessly giving Hayate his mission, ignoring his questions - "Why _Nami?" -_ and leading him there, Naruto sent a clone ahead to warn everyone, Kushina and Minato's spirits going with it to give him a surprise. Dropping into the trapdoor and sliding down the chute, Naruto waited for Hayate, the Shinigami all waiting threateningly, Minato and Kushina upfront, the Yondaime scowling as opposed to his grinning wife, but it was that sort of terror-inducing smile that told you to run away.

When Hayate finally dropped in - landing on his feet, nice - he was met with angry glares from just over 30 people, two of which were people that _should be dead._ "N-Naruto-san... what is that? Who are these people? Kushina-sensei? Yondaime-sama?!" Poor Hayate's mind couldn't really process all this.

"Hello, Hayate-chan. I hear you ignored my request for you to help my son. Care to explain why?" Kushina asked much too sweetly.

Zabuza to the side was sweating bullets, having been on the wrong side of that smile more than once when Kushina found him lacking in one area or another and he gave some half-assed excuse. Yeah, it wasn't being aimed at him this time, but just _seeing_ it scared him, and Hayate wasn't faring much better. Good; he deserves it for abandoning a kid to the hell the gaki told him and Haku about.

"I... I have no excuse. I thought it didn't concern me, but I know that was wrong to think. I am here to atone for my mistake, even if that means my death. If it wasn't for Naruto, I would have died anyway, and this illness will take my life soon as well, so it is possibly for the best." Hayate admitted, laying his sword before himself as he kneeled, awaiting judgment.

Kushina's eyes softened slightly; at least he had the wherewithal to admit he was a moron. Didn't mean he was off the hook, though. "Good you realize that, but you're punishment still stands. Welcome to Kushina-sama's Training Marathon 3000!" She announced gleefully.

"...Oh Kami, no." Hayate lamented, having experienced 'Kushina-sama's Training Marathon 3000' once, and only once.

He was stuck in the hospital for a month.

"I'm surprised you haven't said anything about me, though." Minato commented, having cooled down since Kushina was going to take a chunk out of Hayate's hide for everyone.

"Y-yes, Yondaime-sama, have you returned to lead Konoha again?!" Hayate finally asked.

"Konoha can burn!" Minato immediately rebutted with fury.

"Y-Yondaime-sama?!" Hayate exclaimed in alarm.

"My wishes, my son, my wife's people, Konoha has spat on all of them!" Minato said.

"Hayate, look." Naruto said from his position at the main computer, bringing up the document of Mayuri's observations of the betrayal of Uzushiogakure, and the associative video of their murders when they came for help. "Konoha is a den of snakes; they preach peace and justice when their methods include eliminating all not Konoha-born. Obviously, as jinchuriki, I am nothing but a weapon to them, to be disposed of when they see fit after I've given my all for land and country. I foresee these things and I declare 'No more!' Will you join me, Gekkou Hayate, in felling this land of monsters?" He held his hand out to the Jounin.

For the longest time, Hayate sat there in silent contemplation. Everything he knew was Konoha, and everything he knew was shattered. The grandfatherly face of the Sandaime was suddenly replaced with the grimace of a monster of a man that would be rid of anyone once their usefulness had reached an end. Perhaps that would be _him,_ what with this illness, soon enough? Suddenly it made sense why Orochimaru went insane; if the Sandaime, and Konoha as a whole, was truly loving and peaceful, how could a person of Orochimaru's caliber even _happen,_ even _with_ a sudden all-consuming fear of death and the desire to learn all jutsu? The simple answer was also the hardest.

That Konoha had become a village of thieves, liars, and opportunistic traitors.

"Yes. I will join you." Hayate said simply, rising to his feet and taking Naruto's hand.

"Excellent. Do you perhaps know anyone else who would be willing to join us? I can perhaps reach my peers, but do you know anyone of Chuunin or Jounin?" Naruto asked.

"Maybe. We'll have to ask around, but be discreet. Now, can you explain who these people are?" Hayate requested, gesturing to the Shinigami.

Merely nodding, Naruto went on to explain the lab as a whole, the Shinigami, his transformation, and the last two weeks. He told Hayate of another world, where the dead moved on to live, notable spirits becoming 'Shinigami', powerful warriors that fought wayward souls consumed by negative emotions, becoming monsters, which Naruto demonstrated with his summoning scroll. He spoke of the influx of spiritual energy strengthening his parents' presence in his seal, and how he eventually created vessels for them to exist in the physical world, also explaining how the Kyuubi was working with them.

It was all a bit much for the Jounin, but he took it relatively in stride, accepting. He would have offered teaching Naruto kenjutsu, but Kushina was a superior teacher, so that would be moot. With that, Hayate was left at the mercy of Kushina and her Training Marathon.

Hayate cried a bit.

Zabuza as well, since he was roped into it.

With all that out of the way, Naruto dismissed everyone but Shunsui and Kaien, bringing them to a separate room to speak with them, Hayate and Zabuza dragged off to the bunker, the blonde warning his mother beforehand since their talk would entail his zanpakutou so she left her Gigai. Naruto requested Shunsui since his zanpakutou were scimitars as well, and he may be able to impart some knowledge of using sicmitars, and Kaien since his zanpakutou was of the water element, Mayuri having given him a transcript of a previous captains comments about his wind-element zanpakutou, Muguruma Kensei, which he would get to later.

 **"Watashino gawade tatte kudasai, Hahaoya no Ikari!"** Naruto intoned, hands out as his katana split into the unique-looking scimitars.

"Hmm, interesting designs; so you say your mother has begun training you in fighting with scimitars?" Shunsui asked with a lazy smile from his spot on the floor.

"Yes, but it's pretty slow considering she herself has never used them; the lessons are merely theories on integrating the shape and weight of the weapons into my style, with limited success." Naruto responded.

"Hmm... and what does that style entail?" Shunsui asked to make sure.

"Fluid movement, strong counters, and attacks that go in rotations." Naruto answered.

"Hmm... good for most swords, _except_ scimitars. I'm sure you noticed that their weight and shape disallows you to completely follow your style?" Shunsui asked knowingly, receiving a nod and a frown. "I thought as much. Scimitars are one of several unique blades with a style that only works for them, but in the effort of preserving your zanjutsu style, I'd advise incorporating chopping motions, utilizing the slight serrated edge, and instead of working _around_ the weight, use it to your advantage." Shunsui advised.

Naruto nodded, already mentally envisioning the changes he'd need to make. "Think you can show me your style?" He asked.

Shunsui chuckled, though it lacked humor. "I'm afraid that would be impossible, and quite dangerous. My zanpakutou's abilities are completely out of my control, thus you'd be learning under a great deal of 'fire.' My apologies, Naruto-sama." He bowed at his inability to properly help Naruto.

Naruto waved him off. "It's alright since I'm not particularly fond of learning while trying not to die; I get that enough from training under kaa-san." He joked/answered somewhat seriously, to chuckles all around. "I'll take your words into consideration, though." He added.

"Thank you, Naruto-sama." Shunsui responded, pleased to be of assistance in some way.

"And what can you tell me about an elemental zanpakutou, Kaien-san?" Naruto asked his second Shinigami mentor.

Kaien jumped from being suddenly addressed, slightly nervous at teaching his 'master' _anything,_ let alone the way of the zanpakutou. "U-uh, yes! Well, from my own experience, in dealing with water via my zanpakutou, I need to open myself to it, and it opens itself to me. Once the 'bridge' is made, I need to... 'exert my will' seems too harsh. For lack of a better phrase, I need to 'ask politely' of my zanpakutou for my attacks. I bring the full weight of crashing waves upon my opponent, all because I seek to understand my zanpakutou, and he me." He attempted to explain, looking at his zanpakutou in remembrance of their first meeting, and its defiled cries as the Arrancar Aaroniero Arrurerie used it on his friend Kuchiki Rukia.

"Hmm, open myself to it, huh?" Naruto muttered to himself, looking at the blue scimitar and attempting just that. He was shocked to find its 'side' of the bridge was wide open, and thus the connection was made almost instantly, and thus water whipped around the blade. Smiling at the ease of it, Naruto theorized that it was because of Kushina's willingness to help him, and thus his mere intent to understand the 'zanpakutou half' of her made this possible. Following that theory... blades of wind formed around the other blade just as easily. "Excellent." Naruto commented with a smile.

"Oh! That was quick of you to implement, Naruto-sama!" Kaien commented, amazed, while Shunsui to the side merely smiled, always one of the more observant Shinigami, recognizing Naruto's untapped potential that this abysmal place, Konoha, ignored.

"Most of it was due to my mother's willingness to help me in any way, since she functions as my zanpakutou spirit. I opened the 'bridge' and the power crossed over, and I repeated it for the other sword. Now I just need to train in what these allow me to do, which should be easy enough with my prior jutsu training. Now, Kaien-san, can you bring me Yamamoto-san, I need to talk to him and Shunsui about something I've had on my mind." Naruto requested of the Squad 12 lieutenant as he resealed his zanpakutou.

Nodding and bowing lowly, Kaien quickly left the room to get the Captain Commander, leaving Naruto with the 8th Squad captain.

"So... how much do you recollect from your original life?" Naruto eventually asked somewhat awkwardly. He had spoken to Mayuri on this, and the Squad 11 captain said he recollected up until the original died at the hands of Yhwach, king of the Quincies.

"Right up until death at old age, a couple decades after everyone took care of Aizen's second chance at his little bid for godhood." Shunsui answered with a lazy tone.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at that bit of information; he knew full well about Aizen's treachery and subsequent attempt to reach the Soul King's power, but his knowledge - Mayuri's knowledge - stopped when the original died at the hands of Yhwach, but Shunsui's words appeared to allude to the time after that, where Aizen tried again. Thankfully, the original Mayuri took the necessary precautions to prevent _this_ Aizen from trying anything funny, so Naruto wouldn't have to worry about that. "What did he try to do this time? Yhwach absorbed the Soul Kings power, so why bother going for that level when it could be beaten?" He asked.

"Obviously, reach _Yhwach's_ power. He found Yhwach's corpse, which we locked away when he died for study, and somehow managed to splice himself with his The Almighty. It was a tough battle since he already knew all of our abilities, and thus we were incapable of hurting him, but a combination of that Kurosaki boys little girly friend and his propensity for pulling a save-the-day move out his ass managed to put the bastard down." Shunsui elaborated.

Naruto blinked in surprise; girly friend? ...The Shun Shun Rikka girl? "How did _she_ help?" He asked.

"Considering the hair pins I saw in the lab, you know about her abilities?" Shunsui asked, already knowing the answer, but taking the nod all the same. "Well, in the time between Aizen's defeat and that, she created some sort of counterattack technique - I'm not sure about the specifics - which she was only able to use to its full effect when that Fullbring boy died right in front of her. You know the Shun Shun Rikka is strengthened by killing intent and will, and she normally can't hurt people because of her personality, but grief and sadness are powerful things, and she tapped into a virtual _lake_ of power, and she, alongside Ichigo, completely trounced Aizen." He informed the blonde.

Naruto frowned at that; while this technique she used was powerful - according the Mayuri's records, Shunsui most likely spoke of the **Shiten Koushun -** it was sad to hear that she was only able to utilize her abilities to the fullest extent at the expense of a close friend. "Interesting..." Was all Naruto could say.

Shunsui merely nodded gravely, his thoughts much like Naruto's.

"Naruto-sama, I've brought Yamamoto-sama." Kaien announced as he approached the blonde, the Captain-Commander, following him.

"Thank you, Kaien-san; you may take your leave." Naruto bade him.

Bowing in gratitude, Kaien left the three of them.

"What is it you wished to speak to me about, Naruto-sama?" Yamamoto asked. "And how does it involve Shunsui?" He added, not out of disrespect but curiosity.

"Well, you've said Shunsui is your closest friend and advisor, beside your lieutenant, and according to Mayuri's words, you named him Captain-Commander after your death, so you must hold him in great regard, yes?" Naruto asked, receiving a nod and a small chuckle from Shunsui. "Well, I brought both of you for an idea I had. How does a Shinigami Academy sound?" He put the idea forth, waiting for their answers.

"Hmm... explain. What exactly will this 'Academy' entail?" Yamamoto asked.

"It will function much like the Academy in the Seireitei, cultivating students into future Shinigami _and Quincies."_ Naruto answered simply, bringing up that last point to get it out of the way.

"Quincy? You would ask us to aid you in making _more_ of them?! Naruto-sama, you cannot possibly believe this is a good idea; you _know_ of the balance of reincarnation, and what they do to it. As Shinigami, it is our duty to erase the Quincies, and you would ask us to create _more_ of them? I fail to see the logic in it." Yamamoto calmly pointed out; beside Yhwach, Yamamoto did not _hate_ the Quincies, he merely believed it was their duty to erase them so they would not disrupt the balance.

Shunsui to the side was silent in observation, wondering how Naruto would face this hurdle.

Naruto nodded in understanding. "I didn't expect you to, since you don't know how this would work, but it isn't your fault. I'm completely aware of the balance of souls and that the Quincies upset it, but in cultivating the children of this world into Quincy, there is no threat of that." He responded.

"How so, Naruto-sama?" Yamamoto asked.

"Obviously, Quincies use reiryoku for their techniques - pure spiritual energy - and thus their techniques erase the souls of Hollows. However, the people of this world use _chakra,_ spiritual _and physical_ energy combined, so there is no threat of them upsetting the balance. Besides, Hollows don't seem to appear in this world; our dead immediately go to what we refer to as the Pure World, and thus don't linger and become Hollows, even those of us that have 'unfinished business.'" Naruto answered plainly.

Yamamoto was silent in surprise at this answer. "Very well, Naruto-sama; I am glad you have thought of everything concerning this matter." He finally said. "Well, with that matter taken care of on my heart, I believe the idea is commendable, but there may be some... issues with going about it." He pointed out.

"I figured as much, but what issues are _you_ talking about?" Naruto asked, already thinking of a few problems that might crop up in attempting to found a Shinigami Academy.

"You intend to build this Academy within your village, yes?" Yamamoto asked the obvious, since Naruto wouldn't become a missing-nin any time soon. No, he would stay within Konoha as he destroyed it, abusing the fact that they wouldn't let their 'weapon' go, and even imprisoning him would be detrimental, as they would be withholding the jinchuriki when it could be used 'properly.' "Well, obviously those fools will not let you create any sort of building, whether you have the money or not through some foolhardy excuse, or perhaps pointing out that these 'shinobi villages' only need one Academy, and thus your Academy would be pointless to them. And even if you are able to build it, they will most likely prevent any children from attending through one way or another. And we'll eventually run out of Asauchi-zanpakutou for the students." He listed the unfortunate truths.

"I've already thought of all those problems and found solutions where Konoha can't do shit about it; _even_ the zanpakutou." Naruto responded with a conniving grin.

"Is that so? Please explain this, Naruto-sama; I myself am interested in how you bested those idiots, and circumvented that last problem, especially." Shunsui jumped into the conversation, interested.

"Yes, as am I." Yamamoto agreed.

"Mayuri has always been the one who repairs zanpakutou, so it's obvious he'd eventually learn how to _create_ them, as fixing them is not just a physical effort, so we can make them ourselves. Our eventual compound from the land I'll buying with Yoruichi and Soifon's bounty hunting money will function as both a home and the Academy, and the students themselves will be the orphans of Konoha. A simple **Henge** will suffice to allow me to adopt them without issue, and most of them will most likely join the Academy if I ask them, anyway." Naruto explained, a fond smile on his face as memories pervaded his mind.

When he was kicked out of the orphanage by that witch of a headmistress - not just to him, but to _every_ child - he did not forget his friends in there, as the children ignored her words to hate him, his kindness showing that he was nice, and as orphans they needed to stick together; heck, there was even a deaf girl that he learned sign-language to speak with her, which helped with doing hand seals for jutsu. Even after he left, he snuck in food whenever he could, and the children came to him whenever they got hurt, and he tended to them as best he could. He also managed to make sure those that were adopted where taken in by good people, using his great stealth - how the hell do you think not even ANBU could catch him after the _best prank ever_ in a bright-orange jumpsuit? - to do so. Actually, before he left for Nami and this lab, he stockpiled as much food as he could and gave the kids directions so they could go eat while he was gone.

"You are quite the sneaky bastard, Naruto-sama." Shunsui commented with a grin.

"Indeed, you have thought of everything, Naruto-sama. And I am to believe several of the captains and lieutenants will act as instructors?" Yamamoto asked just to make sure.

"Yes, Kira, Retsu, Isane, Momo, Nanao, Nemu, Kaien, and Yoruichi will be teachers." Naruto listed off those he believed would be best for the positions, at least one instructors for branches such as combat, both for physical and specialized attacks like jutsu or Kidou, support, such as healing, and stealth/assassination, Yoruichi being the slightly kinder alternative, as compared to the intense Soifon.

"Hmm, acceptable choices, even the Shihouin woman. Very well, if you truly believe you have every issue that might pop up in this situation under control, then I can stand behind this idea." Yamomoto gave the green light.

"As can I, Naruto-sama; it will be interesting and quite amusing to see their faces when they realize they can't touch you in this situation." Shunsui commented.

"Excellent, then you're okay with being the head of the Academy, Yamamoto-san?" Naruto dropped on him with a grin.

"...What?" Yamamoto responded eloquently.

"Excellent, glad to hear! That'll be everything then!" Naruto said, quickly making for the door to dodge the oncoming storm.

"...What?"

Shunsui was busy laughing his ass off at the old man's face.

Yamamoto finally snapped out of it. "I don't know what you're laughing about, Shunsui; you're the assistant." He quickly turned the tables.

"What?!"

 **(With Naruto)**

Having overheard Yamamoto's words, Naruto laughed at poor Shunsui as he headed towards the main lab, Mayuri working on this or that. Just the man he needed to see.

"Mayuri-san, I need to ask you something." Naruto got the captains attention.

"Hmm? What is that, Naruto-sama?" Mayuri asked, looking away from his work once he deemed it safe to do so.

"You can _make_ zanpakutou with Asauchi, right?" Naruto asked, just to make sure he didn't overestimate the man's capabilities.

"Oh, yes, of course, Naruto-sama. That was essentially the first thing I needed to learn when I went about intending to repair zanpakutou; why do you ask?" Mayuri questioned in return.

"Excellent. In the near future, I'll need you to create as many Asauchi as you can. We'll be opening a Shinigami Academy in Konoha - don't worry, I have work-arounds for Konoha and its bullshit so there won't be any problems with going about that - and, obviously, we'll eventually need them for the students. Currently, we have 10 blank zanpakutou left, and a single class will be nearly double that." Naruto explained.

"A Shinigami Academy? A novel idea, Naruto-sama, but commendable all the same. Just tell me whenever you need them and I'll begin work on the zanpakutou." Mayuri swore.

"Great. You may return to your work, then." Naruto said after shaking his hand, walking away.

With that out of the way, Naruto headed to the training bunker, spying his father sparring with Yoruichi, Soifon off to the side as a spectator. With a shrug, he decided to strike up a conversation with the 2nd Squad Captain, sidling up beside her. "Hey Soifon-chan; how's bounty-hunting going?" He asked.

Not reacting to his sudden voice, Soifon turned to face Naruto. "Greetings, Naruto-sama. Yes, the bounty-hunting is going expeditiously, however there was a bit of a hiccup on the latest target, Rokushou Aoi." She said mechanically.

Naruto frowned not for the first time at Soifon's voice; she seemed to make a conscious effort to appear as some sort of emotionless machine, but Naruto, and Yoruichi for that matter, could hear the tenseness in her speech patterns. Yoruichi said she knew the reason behind it, but wouldn't say much on the matter, merely walking off with a knowing grin, Naruto not one to force the answer out of her with the 'programming' in her, he'd just find out on his own. "A 'hiccup?'" Naruto parroted, confused.

"Well, two to be precise. First, we encountered another bounty-hunter who attempted to fight us for Aoi's corpse, someone by the name of Kakuzu according to the bingo books. He appears to be a Taki missing-nin who's made a reputation of collecting bounties. Yoruichi-sama managed to scare him off with her speed and strength... after killing him." Soifon explained awkwardly.

"...He ran away _after_ dying?" Naruto asked, even more confused.

"Well, he _would_ have died, but all he did was mutter about 'losing a heart' then some sort of black creature came out of his back and died on the floor. After that he left." Soifon explained, confounded by these shinobi to no end.

"...Well shit, that's kind of scary. Someone who can survive having their heart destroyed? You'll probably need to look out for him again, unless he decides to smart up and avoid you." Naruto commented. "And the other hiccup?" He asked.

"Well, when we brought Aoi's corpse to one of the hideouts for turning in bounties, the man in the building mentioned the Raijin no Ken being returned to Konoha." Soifon said, immediately noticing Naruot tensing up at the mention of giving such a powerful weapon back to Konoha. "Thankfully, Yoruichi-sama discreetly picked the weapon off Aoi and fed the man a story about the weapon not being on him, and we still received our payment." She amended, pulling the bladeless hilt from her yellow obi and handing it to Naruto.

"Ah, excellent, Soifon-chan. Anything to mess up Konoha." Naruto praised, pocketing the handle and patting Soifon on the shoulder, ignoring the 4" difference - poor boy can't catch a break - eyes closed with his grin, missing her reddening face. "Keep up the good work and we'll be able to create the compound for our giant family, _and_ the Academy." He said.

"Academy, Naruto-sama?" Soifon questioned, blush gone.

"Ah yes, I haven't told everyone yet. Actually, let's get everyone together. Tou-san, Yoruichi-chan, can you put a pause on your spar? I have an important announcement!" Naruto yelled over at the two.

"What's that, sochi?" Minato asked once he and Yoruichi broke away, pocketing his kunai.

"You'll find out once I get everyone together." Naruto answered, creating a clone that ran out of the bunker to call everyone to it for the announcement.

Just three minutes later, all the Shinigami and four shinobi were gathered in the bunker.

"What did you want everyone together for, Naru-chan?" Kushina asked, little Nel in her arms playing with her hair again.

"I wanted to tell everyone about a major plan I have for when we return to Konoha. After a talk with Yamamoto-san and Shunsui-san, I've decided to create a Shinigami Academy, where students can learn to become Shinigami and Quincy; don't worry for those of you who worry about the balance of souls. As their abilities will be based in chakra, they won't erase the souls of Hollows from existence; besides, Hollows don't seem to manifest in this world, anyway, given our connection to the Pure World, as our dead don't linger. As the Academy will be on the compound grounds, Konoha can't do anything, and the students will be the orphans of Konoha, who will most likely join once they realize _I'm_ asking; a disguise will suffice in circumventing any difficulties in adopting them all. As such, I would ask that several of you act as instructors, as I believe you are best suited for the roles. Kira-san, Retsu-chan, Isane-chan, Momo-chan, Nanao-chan, Nemu-chan, Kaien-san, and Yoruichi-chan, will you please instruct the children? There will be specific classes for your arts, so you won't be asked to teach something outside of your comfort zone." Naruto elaborated.

"OF COURSE, NARUTO-SAMA." Those asked all answered simultaneously and bowed.

"Excellent. Obviously, these changes will be enacted some time after the Chuunin Exams, where we take our winnings, build the compound and Academy - we'll all have to stay in here until then - move everyone there and adopt the children, then we can begin. Tou-san, Kaa-san, you'll obviously have to stay out of the public eye." Naruto said regrettably.

"Of course, sochi/Naru-chan." Minato and Kushina said.

"With all that out of the way, we are down to the last two weeks of this month, but none of you really need to worry about rushing anything. I myself am going to continue training, this week solely to zanpakutou, but I may need to speak to one or two of you for some Kidou training. Next week will be a mix of everything so far, and I'll be bringing some of you with me to Konoha at the end of the month; the first seven captains, the next six lieutenants, and Kisuke-san will be coming with me. " Naruto said.

"VERY WELL, NARUTO-SAMA." The fourteen individuals affirmed and bowed again.

"Everyone, dismissed." Naruto said, the Shinigami, save Yoruichi and Soifon, and Zabuza, Haku, and Kushina leaving the training bunker. Minato and Yoruichi returned to their spar, Soifon remaining a spectator until she and Yoruichi left for another bounty, the blonde heading to another part of the bunker to do his own training, warning Kushina beforehand.

 **"Watashino gawade tatte kudasai, Hahaoya no Ikari!"**

 **(One week later)**

Having commissioned the likes of Retsu and Soifon for Kidou training halfway through the week let Naruto get a commendable grasp of the manipulation of spiritual energy, that and his elemental jutsu training letting him get by swimmingly in his zanpakutou training, creating a couple techniques with them, though he, obviously, didn't achieve Bankai already; Naruto may be an intellectual genius and possibly the best student ever for a teacher willing to teach, but three weeks wasn't enough for something like that.

However, just like his last trip to Konoha for supplies - he underestimated the required amount and was thus paying for it, having to return to Konoha again so soon - something interesting happened.

 **(Road to Konohagakure)**

Jumping from tree to tree, the world blurring around him, Naruto almost missed the cries of terror and mercy, but thankfully for the person in question, they reached him. "...Damn my bleeding heart." Quickly changing course, Naruto headed towards the voice, happening upon a woman in clothes denoting her as a noble cowering before a trio of bandits who were closing in on her, eyes filled with less-than-honorable intent.

Quickly landing between them and unsealing his zanpakutou, Naruto swung the blade of wind, a massive manifestation of the element flying forward and liberating these gentlemen of their lower halves, the wind preventing the resultant splatter from hitting either of them. Quickly turning around and blocking her view of them, Naruto kneeled down closely. "Are you alright?" He asked softly.

The girl could only squeak in fear that refused to leave her and nodded.

"You live at the Daimyo's palace, don't you?" Naruto asked the obvious, noticing the sigil of the Daimyo on her kimono.

"H-he's my uncle." She finally said.

"Well, let's get you home, then." Naruto decided, quickly picking her up, bridal style, and began hopping through the trees to the northwest.

The girl could only squeak at the suddenness of it, not resisting, just wanting to get away from that area. "Th-thank you, shinobi-san." She said.

"My name's Naruto, and it was no problem. I couldn't very well leave you to die, now could I?" Naruto asked rhetorically, refusing to do anything that resembled Konoha's actions. "But if I may ask, where are your guards? Shouldn't they have protected you?" He asked, wondering.

"Th-those men killed them... my guards were always the lazier of the bunch, since I kept saying I would never be in danger in my own country. Obviously I was wrong..." She responded, cursing her naiveté.

Merely grunting, Naruto continued tree-hopping, and they stayed like that for a while, the only sound being the wind whistling by their ears. Making it to the palace to the north of Konoha within two hours of non-stop running, Naruto stopped at the gate, letting the guards approach.

"Halt! Who goes- Hitomi-sama?! What happened, why is this man carrying you in such a way?!" The samurai demanded in worry.

"I found her on the road, about to be assaulted by bandits. Apparently they killed her guards, and I felt obligated to both rescue her and bring her home, as I recognized the royal sigil on her clothes." Naruto answered for her, setting her down on her feet.

"Th-thank you for saving Hitomi-sama, shinobi-san! Please come inside, Shijimi-sama will want to meet you for rescuing his niece!" The guard bade them both inside.

Shrugging, Naruto followed the guards and Hitomi, taking in the extravagant interior and crossing the large room to approach the dual thrones of the Fire Daimyo, Takeru Shijimi, and his wife, who was strangely absent.

"Hitomi-chan, there you are! The guards just informed me of your plight; I am just glad to see you safe and sound!" The middle-aged Daimyo declared as he hugged the girl.

"I-I'm fine, ojii-sama; Naruto-san saved me from the bandits." Hitomi assuaged the man's worries.

"Yes, so I've been told. Naruto-san, is it? Thank you for coming to my nieces aid, how can I ever repay you?" Takeru said.

"No thanks necessary; I just did what was right." Naruto responded simply. While he would have liked the Daimyo's backing for his crusade against Konoha, mentioning anything of the sort would quickly brand him a traitor to the country.

"Anything, anything at all! I simply _must_ repay you!" Lord Shijimi persisted, before he took a closer look. "Wait... Naruto-san, who is your father?" He asked suddenly.

"Um... I don't know; I'm an orphan." It wouldn't do to tell anyone he knew who his father was, lest it reach Konoha and raise all sorts of hell.

"Nonsense, I would recognize the child of my closest friend any day! You're Minato's boy, aren't you?!" The Daimyo asked with certainty.

Well there went _that._ "You knew my father?" Naruto asked, surprised.

"Indeed, Minato was my best friend! We raised all sorts of hell together when we were children, and we had such a laugh when we both reached positions of power, though it was more hilarious for me since he had to answer to me." Takeru chuckled at fond memories, before frowning. "But the curious thing is, I was told you died with your parents." He revealed.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Oh, were you? And who was it that told you?" He asked, already having a feeling he knew.

"I believe the Sandaime and one Shimura Danzo were the ones who told me. It was a sad day to hear my closest friend and his wife died, and moreso when I learned their child died. However, obviously you stand before me, so the question remains, why was I told otherwise?" Lord Shjimi questioned.

"I believe I know why... Daimyo-sama, are you familiar with the fall of Uzushiogakure?" Naruto brought up.

The Daimyo let out a quizzical noise. "Yes, I believe there isn't a man or woman alive that _doesn't,_ but what does that have to do with this?" He asked.

"I've recently found some information that would incriminate Konoha in betraying the entirety of Uzu no Kuni, including my mother's clan, the Uzumaki, leaving them for dead and even killing those that escaped to ask for help." Naruto informed the Diamyo.

The entire throne room went silent at this proclamation.

"...Is this true, Naruto-san? Perhaps this person has a grudge against Konoha and is trying to incriminate them with baseless accusations?" Takeru countered hopefully.

"I'm sorry, Daimyo-sama, but I've _spoken_ to the man who brought this information to my attention. He was _there,_ and he is physically incapable of lying to me due to circumstances that aren't important. The point is, what I say is true: Konoha betrayed the Uzumaki because they had outlived their usefulness. Konoha had milked them for every technique they could, and did away with them, giving the green light for Iwa, Kumo, and Kiri to destroy them. The very men who told you I died were the ones to do it." Naruto declared.

"This is... this is very troubling, Naruto-san. Most troubling indeed. Hiruzen and this Danzo must answer for this!" Lord Shijimi demanded.

"That's not the end of their crimes, Daimyo-sama." Might as well lay it on thick.

"What more could they have done?" The Daimyo dared to ask.

"How about throwing a child to the wolves? The Sandaime letting people heave their hatred on a young boy who could do nothing but wonder what he did to deserve this, answered only with fury and accusations? On the night the Yondaime and his wife died, when the Kyuubi attacked Konoha, my father summoned the Shinigami and sealed the bijuu inside of me, imparting the Sandaime with a wish that I be revered as a hero. The old man then told the people I held the Kyuubi, and they despised me; a child, who had not been born even three hours ago, was faced with death threats and demands for his blood. A failure of a law was enacted so none could speak of my burden, even to me, but all my life, I lived with their hatred. They whispered their disgust, they sold me either nothing or overpriced garbage, some even attacked me, and the Sandaime knew and did nothing." Naruto imparted his story to the Daimyo, cold fury evident in his tone.

Takeru was silent and contemplative at this information, his face growing more and more disgusted and infuriated. "...And where was your guardian?" He asked.

"...Guardian?" Naruto asked, confused.

" Jiraiya of the Densetsu no Sannin. I was one of the few who knew that he was named your godfather. Where was _he_ in all this?" Lord Shijimi demanded coolly.

"I... was not told about him." Naruto answered, a new facet of fury filling his mind.

"That is IT! Jiraiya's beloved books are hereby banned in Hi no Kuni, and he will be brought before me for trial!" The Daimyo snapped and proclaimed. "Naruto-san, whatever it is you wish to do about these things you've brought before me, know that the royal family stands behind you!" He added.

Naruto merely grinned and nodded. "Thank you, Daimyo-sama, I'll be sure to let you know when I need your help with something." He said, taking leave as Hitomi and Hanalin attempted to calm Takeru down. _'Oh, how fortuitous; to have the_ Daimyo _aiding me. Absolutely wonderful...'_ Though there was something odd about their current situation. "Daimyo-sama, if I may ask, where is Madame Shijimi?" He asked.

"Ah, my wife has currently taken ill. Thankfully perhaps the greatest doctor in all the Elemental Nations is under my employ as long as I void her debts in Hi no Kuni." Takeru commented with a chuckle.

 _'Greatest doctor? Debts? Is it...?'_ Naruto wondered, only for an opening door to knock him out of his thoughts whilst also confirming them.

"Alright, she should be out of the worse of it. Just rest and plenty of liquids, and Madame Shijimi will be just fine, Daimyo-sama." Senju Tsunade of the Densetsu no Sannin walked in, wiping her hands with a bit of cloth.

"Tsunade-san, thank you for your work! I had feared there was nothing to be done for my beloved wife!" Lord Shijimi said as he arose from his seat.

"No problem at all, Daimyo-sama." Tsunade said, giggling at his eccentricities. "But remember our deal." She added.

"Yes, yes, I've already sent word for your debtors in Hi no Kuni to absolve you. However, remember that Hi no Kuni is merely one land of several, and your... hobby has accrued much more than I myself can deal with." The Daimyo tried to be as gentle as possible.

Tsunade blushed in embarrassment and looked away. While her debt was now cleared in Hi no Kuni, there was still the other lands in which she would be chased down like a dog for the money she owed. More than once she wondered why she kept gambling when she sucked so bad. Legendary Sucker, indeed... "I-I know, Daimyo-sama..." Was all she could say.

A chuckle off to the side got her attention, and she found a blonde child in an orange jumpsuit, of all things. "Who're you?" Tsunade asked.

"My apologies. I am Uzumaki Naruto." The blonde introduced himself congenially.

Tsunade blinked owlishly. "Naruto-kun? What're you doing outside of Konoha?" She asked.

Naruto blinked much the same, just as confused. "Uh... have we met?" He questioned.

"Naruto, I'm your godmother! Sarutobi-sensei's been telling me about you in Konoha with letters." Tsunade explained with a smile that showed she wasn't told the truth.

"...And what did the letters say?" Naruto asked, eyes narrow.

"That you have a lot of friends, that Konoha treats you like a hero like Minato wanted, that you're all around pretty happy." Tsunade answered, hugging him again.

She frowned when he slipped out of her grip. "The Sandaime lied to you." Naruto said with a heavy scowl.

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Tsunade wondered.

"My life was filled with hatred. I have no friends. I am not seen as a hero. Everything he said was a fabrication to keep you away and stop that from happening. The people saw me as the Kyuubi itself and hated me, I was sold nothing but garbage at five times the price, or not even allowed inside at all. The people would gladly see me dead; you tell me what kind of life that is." Naruto corrected her view of his life.

"But... but why?! Why would they do that?! Why would sensei lie?" Tsunade demanded, seeing the truth in the eyes; she saw hatred in them, hatred heaved on him by people that were supposed to be his allies, his friends. And hatred he returned.

"Because they don't understand what a jinchuriki is. And what humans don't understand, they fear. And what they fear, they grow to hate. That is human nature. And he lied so I would become Konoha's weapon, a jinchuriki to be turned on her enemies at a moment's notice, a deterrent. And when my usefulness is at an end, I will die, and the Kyuubi will be given to a more loyal puppet, just as Uzushio met their end when Konoha took what they wanted." Naruto answered.

"What? Uzushio; what're you talking about?" Tsunade asked.

"Words mean nothing; come with me and I will _show_ you." Naruto responded. "Have a good day, Daimyo-sama." He bade Lord Shijimi farewell.

"You as well, Naruto-san; and remember, you have the Daimyo's backing with your endeavors, _whatever they may be."_ Hiding his smirk behind his fan, Takeru returned the wave.

Understanding his meaning, Naruto smirked and lead Tsunade back to his hideout in Nami no Kuni.

"Where are we going? Why are you outside of Konoha, anyway? Aren't you having Chuunin Exams?" Tsunade questioned as she followed, her assistant Shizune just as curious after being introduced to Naruto and told what Tsunade was, just as aghast and confused.

"During my teams first C rank mission, I found a hidden area near Nami no Kuni. I managed to get the old man to let me go there during the month before the final round; he probably let me go to keep up appearances of being a grandfatherly figure. It is there that I found out about Uzushiogakure." Naruto answered as they traversed through the trees.

Silent in contemplation, Tsunade and Shizune merely followed Naruto all the way to Nami, surprised he could run that long and that fast; heck, they had to take a break for _them._

When they finally made it to Naruto's lab less than two hours later, they went down the chute and were confused when they were met with 32 people staring at them, one they recognized as a Konoha Jounin, and two others they were shocked to see.

But before anything was said or done about that, Naruto informed everyone of the very _Daimyo's_ backing, to laughs and grins all around, numerous plans already being discussed and thrown around, leaving them for the future.

"Kushina-chan?! Minato?!" Tsunade gaped, frozen in shock.

"What're we, chopped liver?" Kenpachi said when they were brushed off for the shinobi.

"Pretty much. After all, Naruto-sama's parents _are_ supposed to be dead, so these people will be pretty shocked to see them again." Kisuke answered behind his fan.

"Heyya, Tsunade-chan!" Kushina greeted, much more friendly with her than with Hayate, as she was lied to instead of ignorant.

"Hello, Tsunade." Minato said simply.

"B-but... how're you both alive?"! Tsunade demanded, Shizune off to the side not that much better off; even little Tonton was confused and shocked, before she was taken off Shizune's hands by a squealing Yachiru, the assistant unable to resist.

Yachiru and Nel played with Tonton, the pig accepting it to not have its little pig-mind shattered by the impossibility behind her.

"That would be _my_ doing." Naruto answered for them. "Tou-san put fragments of their chakra and soul in the seal when I was born and Kurama-san was sealed into me, and when I happened upon this base, I was exposed to a large amount of spiritual energy, which allowed them to remain much longer. I eventually put them inside artificial bodies I created, the same reason everyone else you're rudely ignoring are here." He commented, smirking in triumph when Tsunade and Shizune blushed in embarrassment at ignoring so many people. "Hayate-san, while not dead, came dangerously close to it quite recently, and in saving him, he was owed a debt to me, and kaa-san put him through the wringer for ignoring me for too long." He added, the Jounin wincing, both at the memory and his punishment; Kushina-sensei still had it...

"Okay... can you start from the beginning?" Tsunade requested, rubbing her temples to stave off the encroaching headache.

Merely nodding, Naruto did just that, explaining to her how he first found the base, coming back during the month before the Final Round to the Chuunin Exams, happening upon the machine that gave him great intelligence and allowed him to meet his parents, the Shinigami, Zabuza and Haku, and most importantly, what he mentioned about Uzushiogakure.

Obviously Tsunade required proof of this allegation, and thus Naruto supplied it, showing her the video and text document left by the original Kurotsuchi Mayuri, as well as reasoning that Konoha would _at least_ notice Iwa trekking across Hi no Kuni towards Uzushiogakure, which would be massively suspicious as it was during the Third Shinobi World War; they could have also noticed Kumo doing the same thing, so there was no excuse other than betrayal. And just to throw salt in the wound, Naruto showed her the document he neglected to look at himself, marked with the names of people Tsunade provided were her brother and fiancé.

The document spoke of how, firstly, Hiruzen and Danzo speaking of the possibility of Nawaki becoming Hokage in the future, due to his ties to the Shodaime and Nidaime, and his beliefs of peace prospering over the Elemental Nations. Hiruzen and Danzo believed that Konoha should rule over all as the strongest village, so they plotted a way to rid themselves of him without it being tied back to them; obviously, it worked, and Senju Nawaki lost his life. Eventually, Katou Dan met the same fate, for much the same reason. The worst part was that, wracked with grief, Sarutobi and Danzo planned to manipulate Tsunade in some fashion; it wasn't finalized in the recorded conversation, but the fact remained.

With the truth before her, Tsunade was forced to accept the ugly truth.

Sarutobi-sensei betrayed Uzushio, Nawaki, Dan, and _herself,_ and Danzo-teme had a hand in it.

When Naruto saw she was about to be consumed by her rage, he told her to take it outside, not wanting to have to repair any of the delicate equipment in the lab. Tsunade returned half an hour later as many explosive sounds shook the earth above them, many trees reduced to splinters above-ground.

"Better?" Naruto asked with a raised brow and an amused grin.

"Better." Tsunade answered, suddenly sounding very tired, the weight of the horrible truth on her shoulders and mind. "So... what are you going to do about all this?" She dared to ask.

"Obviously, take from Konoha what it took from me, that being everything. The Sandaime and Danzo will pay, and the idiotic shinobi will face the consequences; the civilians are inconsequential, as they were manipulated by the old man. I mean seriously, who would have the bright idea to tell a village full of people, fresh from losing their loved ones, that the object of their hate was now inside a vulnerable baby? And not to mentioned sealed away with an art very few people understand, so they 'translated' it in their own way." Naruto answered logically.

No matter how much the patriot in her, dying as it was, yelled at her to deny him this treachery, the larger, though equally dying - the power of booze and grief - logical side said he was owed at least that much. Konoha took his family, his childhood, his innocence, he deserved at least this much. And if Sarutobi-sensei and Danzo were allowed to continue their work, the Elemental Nations as a whole might suffer. The worst part was that she was contemplating joining him in his sneaky crusade against Konoha; she had also suffered because of Konoha. Her clan as a whole was dead, her beloved brother _and_ her fiancé both died in her arms, because of Konoha, more legitimately now that she knew the truth.

"I would ask that you join us, Tsunade-san." Naruto said, offering his hand for her to take.

Thank Kami, she half-expected him to call her Baa-chan; she probably would have knocked his block off for that. Anyway, Tsunade contemplated the hand, thinking over the pros and cons of joining her godson.

Pros: payback towards Konoha, reuniting with Kushina-chan, spending time with her godson, some semblance of a family in this crazy place, probably the death of Danzo.

Cons: the feeling of betraying everything her clan - _dead_ clan - stood for, including her grandfather, betraying Sarutobi-sensei - not much of a con, considering the kind of person he _really_ was - the most-likely eventual destruction of Konoha as a whole, and... that was about it.

5 to 3 says take it!

"Sure." Tsunade finally responded, taking his hand and pulling him into a hug, surprising the blonde greatly, but he let her get it out of her system.

Once out of her grasp, Naruto turned to Shizune. "I'm sorry for not asking for your opinion as well, Shizune-san, but you have a choice, as well; we will not begrudge you if you choose to leave, though we will be slightly disappointed." He said.

Blinking in surprise at being given this choice, having expected him to think she would go along with this because she was Tsunade's apprentice, Shizune thought it over for a while, before coming to the same conclusion as Tsunade in terms of pros vs. cons. "I will stay, Naruto-san; I am just as disappointed and disgusted with Konoha as all of you and Tsunade-sama." She gave her answer, receiving a smile from the Sannin that she would be staying with her.

Obviously Tsunade's time out of Konoha wasn't _all_ gambling and drinking; there were many times where her emotions got the better of her and she needed someone to help her get through them. Shizune was that someone, the niece of Katou Dan consoling Tsunade and talking with her.

"Excellent! Then you'll both need to be caught up to speed on everything and come up with some plans; your presence will result in some possibly-hilarious results from Konoha shinobi, so we should think this over. I'll come to you later to speak on it." Naruto commented.

"That sounds fun; we'll look forward to it." Tsunade responded with a grin of her own, walking away to mingle with the Shinigami and see what they were personally like outside of Naruto's explanation, Shizune walking over to watch over Yachiru and Nel playing with Tonton, finding the three of them absolutely adorable.

"Naruto-sama." Kenpachi's voice called to Naruto, getting the blonde's attention. "That Tsunade woman; is she strong?" He asked, having gotten a _feeling_ that she might be.

"Well, she is the most physically powerful of the Sannin, and the Sannin as a whole are made of powerful shinobi, so I guess she is. Along the lines of kaa-san, as a matter of fact." Naruto responded after a quick pondering.

Kenpachi's bloodthirsty grin told him what he was thinking before he could say anything, but Naruto let him talk all the same. "You think she'll want to spar, like Kushina-sama?" He asked.

"Perhaps; I suggest you ask her yourself. However, if she refuses... actually, persisting and possibly antagonizing her might get you what you want, so do whatever you believe works." Naruto answered with amusement.

Needing no more provocation, Kenpachi went towards the Sannin to do just that.

Naruto had a feeling that, if the bunker was sentient, it would hate him.

 **(One week later)**

Crunching down during the last week managed to accomplish just a bit more in terms of skill, refining this or that, and finally dabbling in the chakra-powered Quincy equipment, while the last two days were spent relaxing with everyone, the time spent with Minato and Kushina, and even Tsunade, the most blessed.

But, alas, the time had come to return to that dreaded place, Konoha, for the final round of the Chuunin Exams. By the end of the month, the Shinigami put Naruto at 3rd seat strength, Minato and Kushina citing him as high Chuunin, low Jounin, so the month was very productive.

Over the course of the last week, Naruto had commissioned tailors in Nami no Kuni to make a new wardrobe for him, as Minato and Kushina told him that his bright-orange jumpsuit might get him killed one day, especially if he tried to be sneaky. Agreeing, as Naruto's somewhat tweaked personality due to his new intelligence made him see the flaw in keeping the jumpsuit, the blonde sought out a change, but he kept the jumpsuit as a memento.

Bereft of orange, Naruto now wore a rather odd-looking set of clothing. Wearing only the mesh that was once under his orange jumpsuit to cover his mildly developed upper body musculature over baggy pants of a deep crimson, black combat boots - he didn't particularly care for the sandals when he really thought about it - red fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back of them, and a light-blue trench coat, much like his fathers', save for the color, with a golden island and sunset. The symbol represented a couple things; the island was Uzushiogakure, which he planned to rebuild in the near future, and the sunset overlooking it was his new philosophy.

Senju Hashirama was the light.

Uchiha Madara was the darkness.

 _I am Uzumaki Naruto, and I am the twilight._

"Well, we're off; we'll be back later today, everyone, _with_ the land deed." Naruto bade those who would remain farewell, his parents leaving their Gigai to go with him in the seal.

Going with him were Yamamoto, Soifon, Gin, Retsu, Aizen, Byakuya, Komamura, Nanao, Shuuhei, Rangiku, Yachiru who had taken to sitting on his shoulders, Nemu, Kaien, Kisuke, and a bedraggled Hayate; Naruto and Mayuri managed to pump him full of their regenerative formula so he could be up and running even after 'Kushina-sama's Training Marathon 3000', but the poor man was possibly shell-shocked from what he experienced. They also managed to help him with his cough; it was a simple matter of scanning what the actual problem was and devising a formula to cure it, the medicinal technology much more advanced than the Elemental Nations, thus it was _beyond_ easy. Tsunade and Shizune wouldn't be coming with them, as several plans they had made required them to appear much later.

"Have fun, Naruto-sama." Shunsui bade him farewell with a lazy chuckle. _"Have fun, Nanao-chan~"_ He added insinuatingly, taking amusement in her embarrassed huff.

 **"Hey, wait a minute!"** Kurama suddenly yelled.

 _'Huh? Kurama? What is it?'_ Naruto asked.

 **"You promised me a vessel by the end of the month!"** Kurama reminded him.

 _'...Oh shit, I forgot! Right, I'll start right now, shouldn't take too long.'_ Naruto promised. "Forgot something, back in a mo'." He told everyone, heading back inside.

When Tsunade learned of even the Kyuubi no Kitsune being involved in all this, she was hard-pressed to believe its motives were anything but completely beneficial to everyone, but after many talks about it, and even introducing the two of them by pulling her into Naruto's mindscape, she accepted that it was helping them, but she was obviously still slightly uncertain.

Using the same process he did to put Kushina's soul in the zanpakutou, of course more easily now that he had experience, Naruto put Kurama's consciousness in a gikon, before stuffing in the vessel he and Kushina agreed on.

"Thereyougobuddyseeyabye!" Naruto said much too fast, running outside. "Come on, let's go before he realizes what happened!" He proclaimed, causing everyone to following his use of **Shunshin** with their **Shunpo.**

Inside the lab, Kurama opened his physical eyes for the first time in 12 years, looking down at himself.

Looking at his paws, he instead found rounded nubs of cloth, and looking around, he found a mirror to the side. Padding over to it, he looked at his reflection.

 **"NARUTOOOOOOOOO!"**

 **(Road to Konoha)**

"BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Naruto, Kushina, and Minato laughed together, the blonde falling to the forest floor mid-jump, Retsu thankfully catching him.

"What is so funny, Naruto-sama?" Yamamoto asked, curious.

"I-I-I put... I put Kurama in... HAH, I put Kurama in a fox plushie kaa-san and I found in Nami!" Naruto finally said, Shuuhei, Rangiku, Yachiru, Kaien, and Kisuke losing their shit much like him, the others more reservedly having a hearty chuckle.

"Oh Naruto-sama, you and Kushina-sama are very... mischievous, we'll say." Retsu commented once she got her giggles under control, the image of a fuming doll with the spirit of a mighty bijuu incredibly amusing.

Kushina manifested herself out of the seal for just a second to give her son a high-five, the blonde still chuckling to himself once he got down and began moving with everyone else under his own power, making great time towards Konoha

"U-uh, hey Naruto... and Hayate-san? Just in time for the Exams; they start in an hour. Uh... who're your friends?" Izumo asked awkwardly.

"Let's just stick with saying they're friends and leave it at that, okay?" Naruto responded mysteriously, signing in and handing the clipboard around for everyone else to sign.

"Well... uh... okay, I guess. As long as they aren't threats to Konoha." Kotetsu said, not exactly seeing them as threats since he couldn't sense chakra signatures from them, and, swords or not, samurai were inferior to shinobi, and Konoha was the strongest village, so if they caused a problem, they would be taken care of shortly.

 _'Konoha... your days are numbered...'_

End Ch. 2

So yeah, remember when I said **jacke44** just kept throwing out ideas for this story? Well, the thing with Hayate, the Daimyo, Tsunade, the Academy, the orphans thing, and Kurama in a plushie were also specified. So that means Hayate lives (yay!) the Daimyo and Tsunade are mad-pissed at Konoha, the Elemental Nations are going to have a bunch of little Shinigami running around (under the command of a hell-bent Naruto, so God help them) and Kurama is totally Kon... but replace the perversion with tiny rage. Possibly funnier.

Also a bit of nudge nudge, wink wink with mentioning Kakuzu. It was bound to happy since Yoruichi and Soifon are on the bounty-hunting rampage.

And the thing with Aizen trying again for godhood was just something I made up, since I totally don't trust Aizen even when he's as bound as he is to that chair! And the power of manga and my own pessimism tells me someone's gonna die soon, so unfortunately I chose Chad, as well as going OrihimiexIchigo save the day because... I honestly don't know. We've eventually gotta see Orihime kick ass, right?

Right?

And don't worry, this Aizen won't be trying anything like in Bleach; Naruto already has plenty of villains, no need to throw in one more.

Also, I told my friend (that one I mention in Elder Scrolls Naruto Uzumaki) about Pernida fuck-that-last-name and took a bit of joy when he went uber-grossed-out at all the shit he does; does that make me a bad person?

Well, that's about everything, so tell me what you think.

Ja ne!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Okay, Serious-Kento time. I've just realized something that puts things in perspective concerning this story and the main point of it, mainly the Evil!Konoha part that some of you don't like.

Namely: What the fuck is your problem? For one thing, it's _in_ the summary that that's how this story is going to go, so if you don't like that type of story, why are you even reading it? To _say_ you don't like it? That's a waste of your time, my time, and an actually constructive review. I do not _hate_ those of you who make your opinions on this known; I respect that kind of thing, but there's a time and a place for these kind of things, and doing just that makes no sense. This is not an attack on you or your tastes in fanfiction, this is merely my response when I get shit like "This is childish, immature trash" or "Another typical cliché fic" and stuff like people desiring great change in this story to suit their tastes.

But the _main_ thing I realized was the double-standard of those who are against Evil!Konoha; if I portrayed Kumo, or Iwa, or Kiri or literally _any other village_ like this, no one would raise hell like this, but _because_ it's Konoha, you get up in arms. Think back to Pein's speech against Naruto; how Konoha "declared their peace and justice" while simultaneously doing the things they did. Plus, I brought up some valid points in the last chapter: the sheer impossibility of two of the three Great Villages that attacked Uzushio crossing Hi no Kuni and Konoha not noticing in the slightest. It was war-time and they would be on high alert; how could they not notice them? Whether they knew what they were doing or not, they were two enemies in _their_ territory and they should react accordingly. While canonically, Konoha _didn't_ draft them or let the destruction happen or any evil shit, this is an interpretation of someone's thoughts on it that I am manifesting in written form. And the same thing with the Sandaime mentioning Naruto was the Kyuubi jinchuriki, the _holder of the cause of everyone's extremely recent pain and sorrow,_ and while canonically, we don't know if people don't have an understanding of fuinjutsu, there are bound to be some idiots in the crowd; that was just a horrible idea on his part.

This is what I have to say on the matter. Your complaining will not get me to stop this fic; nothing short of the horror that afflicted me in Kitsune of Arkham, Nine Tailed Sin, and the Perfect Necromorph will get this story to stop, and the wonder that is jacke44's fountain of ideas will make sure that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Despite what I said, if you still feel what I just said is an attack on you, then you got more problems than a fictitious story written for the entertainment of others that ultimately doesn't effect you or your lives.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach

"Human speech"

 _'Human thought'_

 **"Jutsu/Demon speech"**

 _ **'Demon thought'**_

Let's begin

"Will Hyuuga Neji and Uzumaki Naruto please remain here while everyone else goes to the booth for combatants?" Hayate requested, inexplicably without coughing, being able to act as proctor for the third part of the Exam, as Genma was slated to take his place in case anything happened... including dying, were it not for Naruto, who was turning a few heads thanks to the entourage he walked into the village with, and his new state of dress.

The other participants, sans Dosu and Sasuke, who had not shown up yet, left the arena for the stairs to their allotted booth overlooking the blonde and the Hyuuga Branch member.

While Neji tried to psych him out, Naruto thought about the anonymous bets he made concerning the fights. Obviously, he bet on himself, Gaara - _fuck_ Sasuke, he wasn't ready to face the monster that was the redheaded Suna Genin - Shino, and Temari; Naruto was banking on Shikamaru's laziness costing him the victory. With the odds stacked against himself - being the jinchuriki, the odds were large and complete bullshit, so he'd make a killing _when_ he wins - Gaara - ass-kissers _hoooo~! -_ and Temari - being a foreign kunoichi - he'd have more than enough to actually buy the Uchiha land from the village - as it was the only land large enough that was technically for sale, since Sasuke wasn't of age to take responsibility and legal ownership of it - to build his new home and the Academy. He had already adopted the children - there were 12 of them - and bought the orphanage as a temporary home for them until the land was bought, firing the mistress and any other workers. The children were actually in the crowd right now with his Shinigami cohorts, holding aloft a crudely drawn, but nonetheless adorable, banner with his name on it.

"Naruto-baka thinks he's so cool with his clothes and sword! He'll never be as good as Sasuke-kun, he'll probably just trip over his own feet and lose to Neji." Sakura dared to open her mouth dangerously close the children.

Immediately stopping their cheering, they all mechanically turned to glare at Sakura fiercely, the pinkette stopping her ramblings when she felt a cold chill on her shoulder. Slowly, she turned to find 12 children all glaring at her something fierce.

"...Get her!" The frontmost child, Yomaten, yelled, and they all dog-piled the girl and whaled on her as much as 5-10 year olds could. Quickly, but not too quickly, the more responsible Shinigami extracted the children from their victim, smirks poorly hidden, and put them back in their seats.

Ino and Tenten were laughing off to the side at a Genin getting overwhelmed by civilian children.

Naruto himself was laughing heartily at the scene, just barely hearing Hayate yell 'Hajime!' and dodging Neji's jabs.

"You should learn to pay attention to your opponent; it could get you killed." Neji advised mockingly.

"Oh, I'm sorry; I was just paying attention to something more important than your fate-obsessed ramblings about how I'll lose, how I'm a loser, blah blah blah. Now shut up and die for me!" Naruto suddenly yelled, _punching_ Neji's arm to the side, a loud crack coming from the Hyuuga's wrist before he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, spun on his heel, and threw the arrogant prick as hard as he could across the arena, slamming him into the wall on the other side of the field. "You say I'm destined to fail, but I ask you this: who's the one stuck in the wall, hmm? Now get your ass up and take your beating like a man. Or a little girl, I don't care; I need to vent." He added, unsheathing his zanpakutou. "I'll give you five minutes before I use this sword to its full strength; let's see if you last that long, huh?" He further antagonized.

"D-don't think you can defeat me just because of this fluke." Neji denied as he extracted himself from the wall, withdrawing a pair of kunai to combat his opponents sword.

"4 minutes, 53 seconds, _come oooon!_ The doctor will see you now!" Our blonde _mad_ doctor declared before rushing the Hyuuga, immediately going for an upward slash that would have taken out one of Neji's eyes instantly, the Hyuuga Branch member dodging just barely, his hitai-ate being cut and falling from his head, revealing a green manji with a line on either side. "Ah, and there's the source of your problems. Nasty bit of business with your father, yes?" Naruto commented flippantly.

Neji grit his teeth in fury at the casual mention of the death of his father and his, and many other Hyuuga's, curse. "Don't speak so easily because you believe you hold the upper hand. You are and always will be a loser, this is all meaningless posturing." He commented arrogantly.

"...Y'know, I always thought it was _girls_ who had daddy issues. Is there something you would like to share with the class, Neji?" Naruto asked cheekily, inwardly laughing at Neji's aghast expression, catching the laughter of many of his peers in their booth. "By the way, 4 minutes, 8 seconds." He added before flying through seals. **"Fuuton: Atsugai!"** Blowing a compressed ball of wind akin to a dense tornado, Naruto watched in fascination as Neji cursed and spun in place, releasing chakra from every tenketsu, creating a spinning dome that acted as a shield.

 **"Hakkeshou Kaiten!"** Lamenting using one of his trump cards so soon, Neji decided it was for the best when the technique finished and he saw the damage he had just escaped, as a large area around him was turned into a crater.

"Whoa! Since when can Naruto use elemental jutsu?!" Kiba wondered in the audience.

"A most interesting ability, Neji. I'll need to analyze it further and see if I can replicate it; it could serve me in the future." Naruto proclaimed, having injected Neji, and many others, before the beginning of the third round with Mayuri's Data-Gathering Bacteria by way of blowpipe, the injection needle dissolving in the air once the serum left it.

"What?! Nonsense; only those with the Byakugan can utilize such a technique!" Neji denied.

"Counter-nonsense! Doujutsu and Kekkei Genkai in general are just a series of gene markers activated and deactivated in various combinations for the results we now know today. What can be accomplished with Kekkei Genkai can be done with enough chakra and genius, both of which I have in droves!" Naruto proclaimed. "3 minutes, 45 seconds. **Suiton: Dai Bakusui Shouha!"** Using his massive reserves, Naruto spat an absolutely ludicrous amount of water, the resultant wave causing Neji to swear loudly and take to the arena walls, jumping from the highest point to dodge the final large wave, landing on the surface when it all calmed down.

"What did you hope to accomplish with this?" Neji questioned.

Instead of answering with dialogue, Naruto answered with action. **"Suiton: Sanjuu Suiryudan no Jutsu!" (Water Release: Triple Water Dragon Bullet Technique)**

Balking at both the chakra that went into the technique and the jutsu itself, Neji was forced to utilize his trump card again to save himself.

While Neji did that, Naruto formed five clones beside him and they all channeled chakra to the pentacle they were all wearing, causing them to turning into light and then multiple Sanrei Gloves, quickly forming the bows from their wrists, which they quickly readied to fire.

Just as Neji came out of his **Kaiten,** they all fired as fast as they could, causing him to swear once more and deflect them with his Juuken, dodging what he could. _'How is this possible?! Arrows made of chakra? Even if that were possible, this would require more chakra control than someone like him could accomplish in a month. And this entire fight he's been throwing around jutsu that use a lot of chakra, so how can he still fight?!"_ Neji wondered as he jumped and used his taijutsu to knock the arrows out of the air. Using his Byakugan, he glanced at the Naruto's, only to find they all had the same level of chakra.

A pair of arms appeared from behind him, tangling themselves with his own in such a way that he could move his own arms, but they had free reign, a katana held against his throat and a kunai to his heart.

"You should learn to pay attention to your opponent; it could get you killed." Naruto turned his first words back on him, a smirk in his voice that even Neji could recognize without seeing his face. Without even demanding he surrender, Naruto quickly expedited his arms from the 'captive' and gave him a chakra-enhanced kick in the back, sending him forward and into the water below them, the Hyuuga quickly attempting to get out of it before Naruto could enact whatever plan he had. "2 minutes, 58 seconds Neji~! I'm getting bored now!" The original Naruto said, his clones on the other side of the field dispelling as he threw his sword into the air to quickly go through hand seals. **"Suiton: Suishouha!"** The water below them began spinning, slowly creating a whirlpool, Neji caught up in it since he didn't know the specific way to channel chakra to his feet to stay stable on it, while Naruto did. With a final upward gesture of his hands, Naruto caused the water vortex to rise into the air and explode violently, Neji caught right on the edge of it; he didn't want to kill the poor boy.

Unfortunately, the Hyuuga Branch member used that blasted rotating technique to save his hide, buffeting a great deal of harm he would have otherwise suffered, but he didn't come out unscathed.

With that technique, the bountiful water he had summoned was dispersed as rain or vapor, leaving them to land on solid ground, Neji nursing a horribly sore body.

"Perhaps this will require a more personal touch." Naruto realized, before rushing the Hyuuga again, not allowing him to monologue about this or that as he fought for his life to not be gored on the edge of Naruto's blade.

Getting in a few cuts, Naruto's mounting confidence eventually resulted in arrogance, allowing Neji to get in a shot, a powerful palm thrust to the stomach sending him back. "Ugh! _Rude."_ He commented, nursing a sore abdomen, thankful the center of his chakra network was untouched.

"You're within my field of divination."

 _'That sounds bad.'_ Naruto idly commented in his mind, the Hyuuga appearing before him faster than he achieved before, catching the blonde off-guard, unfortunately.

"Ni shou! Yon shou! Hachi shou! Juuroku shou! Sanjuuni shou! **Hakke Rokujuuyon Shou!"** Blow after blow rained on the blondes body as tenketsu were closed one after the other, a final double-palm thrust to the abdomen sending Naruto rolling backwards, finally coming to a stop.

Unable to even think, Naruto writhed on the ground in pain as various spots on his body throbbed with white-hot fire. Painfully climbing to his feet, Naruto leveled a glare on Neji, even as he forced his chakra to open each tenketsu, more lances of pain shooting through his body, but then dulled by his natural resilience. "I tried... to be fair. I want you to remember that; I _tried_ to give you a chance. And you threw it in my face. Well, you made me angry... Times up, Neji!" Naruto declared, even as everyone stared at him in shock from getting up after that attack. **"Watashino gawade tatte kudasai, Hahaoya no Ikari!"** He intoned, hands becoming full with the weight of the scimitars.

"What the hell was that?!" Tenten wondered, gobsmacked, both at the fact Naruto got up from _that_ technique, and his transforming weapons; she had never seen _that_ before.

 _'What was up with that chant? 'Stand by my side, Mother's Wrath'?'_ Shikamaru wondered, eyes narrow in thought.

The Sandaime's eyes were also narrowed in contemplation. _'Could he know? ...No, that's impossible. But then how...? It can't be a coincidence.'_ He wondered _._

"And what does _this_ accomplish?" Neji dared to ask, choosing to ignore Naruto's ability to brush off the Rokujuuyon Shou, since thinking more on it will distract him from the fight at hand.

Too annoyed to answered, Naruto merely swung his light-green blade. **"Ikari no Hauru!" (Howl of Rage)** A gale of wind that carried a certain mournful scream formed, flying towards Neji.

Cursing, Neji attempted his **Kaiten,** only for the wind to shatter his technique and pick him up, carrying him across the field and slamming him into the arena wall.

 **"Kunou no Namida!" (Tears of Anguish)** Swinging his blue blade, a blade of water formed before it dispersed into large rain droplets that stabbed into the earth like needles, peppering Neji fiercely, pulling a pained yell from his lips against his will.

 _'What... what is this?! How can he be doing all this?!'_ Neji wondered futilely, attempting to extract himself from the wall, pain stretching across his body like electricity. Succeeding, Neji grunted when new pain shot up from his feet.

"Is that all you can take, Neji?! I'm sorely disappointed; I've only just started!" Naruto mocked, before pointing a finger at Neji. **"Hadou #4: Byakurai!"** He yelled, a lance of light-blue lightning extending from his finger, aiming right for Neji's forehead.

Thanks to the spiritual energy-infusion that gave him Mayuri's intelligence, his body was capable of splitting his chakra into the two energies, and thus he could use Kidou effectively; alternatively, they had found several Kidou he could convert into ninjutsu, so he had those in his arsenal, as well.

Cursing at both the speed of the technique and his slow body, due to his injuries, Neji moved himself to the side to dodge. Fighting against the soreness of his body, he popped a soldier pill to dull the pain, then a chakra pill to get some of it back, getting up to his feet for the unofficial 'round 2.' Without word or provocation, he rushed the Uzumaki, palms alight with chakra, ready for a technique Neji had _just_ started working on not a few days ago; trial by fire, indeed. As expected, Naruto wasn't going to just stand there and take it, but he'd work around that.

Not liking the look of those glowing palms, Naruto immediately retaliated; slamming the bottoms of his scimitars together, he shattered the glass orbs at them, the trapped water and wind melding together into a whirlpool that acted as some sort of tie between them, creating a sort of double-sided scimitar, and he threw it at Neji as the Hyuuga approached him, the weapon spinning and curving down its path like a boomerang. As he foresaw, the Hyuuga dodged it and continued running toward him, sliding into his guard as he reared back his palm for a point-blank attack.

 **"Hakke Kuu-"**

"DENIED!"

A kick to the back of his head ruined Neji's concentration, and rattled his brain quite a bit, the Naruto at fault smirking behind him before the clone in front of him caught him, threw him over his shoulder, and grabbed the original's arm to throw him after the Hyuuga Branch member, the blonde separating his weapon into its two parts as he flew.

So intent on utilizing his new technique to, in his mind, finish the fight instantly, Neji didn't notice a _second_ double-headed scimitar in the shadow of the first; the very same technique Naruto used on Zabuza with Sasuke's Fuuma Shuriken during the mission that started it all. Once behind Neji, he simply dispelled the transformation, caught the real weapon, and attacked Neji with his back turned.

Slamming into the arena wall once again, Neji didn't have a chance to get himself off, as a sharp blow to the small of his back stopped any attempted, and he felt the serrated blades of his opponents weapons on either side of his neck; this was the second time Naruto had him in a 'death grip', and just like the first...

He let him go.

But with a message.

"I had your life in my hands twice, and I gave it back twice. Don't make the same mistake to make it a third, or I won't make the same mistake of giving it back."

With a terrifying amount killing intent and _bloodlust_ to boot.

Shaken by it, Neji took longer than he would have liked to get back onto his feet, but he did, and he brushed off Naruto's threat and faced him again in combat. He daren't attempt to block Naruto's weapons with mere kunai, knowing they would be destroyed instantly, and thus his defeat would be assured, so he opted for taijutsu and vehement dodging, which soon became difficult as his injuries began to wear on him and his stamina began to fail him.

Time and again, Naruto didn't go for the killing blow when Neji _knew_ he could end his life easily, but thankfully he never caught him like he twice before did, otherwise he _would_ have died. As the battle raged, a horrible, disgusting, loathsome thought kept popping up in Neji's head, which he attempted to squash and rid himself of, but it always returned.

 _'He's better than me.'_

In the beginning of the fight, Naruto's attempts to dodge the Juuken were clumsy and oafish, yet they succeeded all the same. As the fight progressed, he noticed that his movements became smoother, and almost _preemptive;_ he was learning how to face the Juuken _while facing it for the first time._ If Neji weren't who he was, he might have praised Naruto's capacity to observe and counter; as it was, he could only grow more infuriated as the blonde danced around his blows.

"Juuken: a taijutsu style handed down through the Hyuuga clan, utilized to damage the chakra circulatory system, organs, and pressure points, such as... _this!"_ Naruto suddenly jabbed a point on Neji's forearm, smirking when he yelled in pain and cradled his arm, jumping away from the blonde.

"B-but... how?! How did you do that?! That was a perfect Juuken strike; how could you have dissected my taijutsu style and replicated it?! How could you know where _any_ of the tenketsu were?! HOW?!" Neji demanded.

"Why, science, of course! As I said before, what can be accomplished with Kekkei Genkai can be done with enough chakra, genius, and in this case, chakra _control!_ And don't you try anything smart, Hiashi!" Naruto suddenly turned to the crowd, pointing directly at the indignant clan head. "I stole nothing! I merely observed, analyzed, and replicated; a skill of any good scientist!" He said.

What Naruto actually did was modify the Data-Gathering Bacteria serum to feed him information _during_ events instead of having to collect it afterwards. He used the information gathered not just from Neji himself, but from the other contestants, and even himself for later when he witnessed the other fights.

That took a _lot_ of bumping into people like a shitty pickpocket, but it was worth it.

As such, he had extracted the basic information of the Juuken and the locations of some tenketsu, utilizing the information in the field. It wasn't enough to say he knew the Juuken, but bravado was one part of messing with your enemy.

The wind scimitar came to life, a massive blade of wind forming around the blade, larger than Naruto's entire body, before he swung it. **"Gekidou no Ten no Ha!" (Blade of the Infuriated Heavens)**

The massive gouge in the earth, which Neji barely dodged, showed people that 'the infuriated heavens' were equated to Naruto's opinion of pretty much anyone that hated him in Konoha.

Naruto's water scimitar became wreathed in the liquid, the water extending and lashing about as he swung the blade, tearing up the earth as Neji played the 'try not to die' game.

Fun for the whole family.

 **"Umi no Chobatsu!" (The Ocean's Chastisement)** Like the wagging finger of death because you broke her favorite vase, the water whip went this way and that, tearing up the field and tossing around large chunks of the earth. Neji was hard-pressed to keep dodging it and the debris, but some saving grace occurred when Naruto suddenly stopped, only for it to be squashed like a bug as he immediately followed it up with another technique that didn't appear to be a jutsu he had ever heard of. **"Hadou #1: Shou!"** Merely being pointed at caused Neji to be blown back by some invisible force, like a great hand slapped him back. Naruto followed up by jabbing his wind scimitar towards Neji just after that.

 **"Densetsu no Yari!" (Lance of Fury)** Scimitar wreathed in wind, the weaponized air extended forward in a stab, intent on impaling the airborne Hyuuga.

 _'Shit!'_ Neji cursed once he noticed it, before haphazardly executing his defensive technique, only for the strength of the wind technique to rupture his dome of chakra and send him flying, tenketsu all over sore and visibly reddened both from the technique backfiring and overusing the technique.

Body paralyzed from the pain, Neji was unable to do anything as Naruto walked over to him and stabbed his blades into the ground to trap his throat between them, making sure any movement on Neji's part would be his last. Leaning forward on one of them, Naruto stared him in the eyes. "What did I say about making the mistake of putting your life in my hands for a third time?" He questioned.

Eyes widening in fear and realization, Neji didn't dare move, knowing he would only tear his throat open and cause a slow, painful death, hoping Naruto would be more merciful. Closing his eyes in resignation, Neji accepted the end. "So... this was my fate in the end, huh? To lose to someone I believed was below me, only to find he was above me in every conceivable way? Perhaps this is Fate having the final laugh. Well okay then... I can't do anything about it, I suppose. Thank you for this fight, Naruto-san; you made me see the truth of my life. In accepting Fate like I did, I actually fought against it, and thus this is my punishment for going against it." He said what he believed to be his final words.

Face flat in response, Naruto thought over Neji's words. _'I... didn't intend_ any _of that. But whatever this guy wants to believe, I suppose; maybe he'll stop being an ass after this.'_ He wondered as he put his hand on Neji's head, the Hyuuga Branch member flinching only slightly. "For a third time, your life is in my hands, Hyuuga Neji. And for a third time, I will give it back." He said, pulling his hand back, a stream of green liquid and visible chakra following his hand before he swiped it to the side, burning the ink with his own chakra and dispersing the energy already within it, before swiftly drawing an exact duplicate of the **Hyuuga Souke no Juinjutsu,** minus the horrible effects. _"You are free now; use it well, and don't disappoint me."_ He whispered to the Hyuuga before he lost consciousness, standing up and pulling his scimitars out of the ground, re-sealing his zanpakutou and sheathing it resultant singular katana.

Hayate jumped forward and checked Neji for a pulse, hoping Naruto didn't actually kill him. Upon finding it, he sighed in relief and proclaimed as such. "Hyuuga Neji can no longer continue to battle! The victor is Uzumaki Naruto!" He declared loudly, the crowd, either forgetting who he was somehow or some of them moved by his mercy, exploded with cheers, surprising the shinobi/scientists before he slowly scratched the back of his head in embarrassment as he walked back up to the booth for the other competitors, Minato and Kushina praising him for his victory, battle-intelligence, and his plan in dealing with Neji.

The day before everyone left for Konoha, Kushina had come to Naruto with a plan for a surefire way of getting another subordinate in the future, in his own opponent in the Chuunin Exams. She explained that, before she died, she had been working on a way to get rid of the Caged Bird Seal at the behest of her best friend, Hyuuga Hitomi, the currently late mother of Hinata and Hanabi, and her husband Hiashi, back when he _wasn't_ an ass. Obviously she didn't get to finish it, but once Naruto provided her and Minato with Gigai, she had gotten back to working on it, and managed to finalize it and bring it to Naruto's attention.

Hidden by a subtle genjutsu on the palm of the hand he used to free Neji was the compacted seal Kushina made; the process was instant, yet very nearly tested Naruto's chakra control, but he succeeded, and the seal was a success. Aptly called the **Jyuu He no Kagi Fuin (Key to Freedom Seal),** it acted as a perfect opposite to the juinjutsu, filling in the 'empty spaces' in the design and canceling it out; obviously it required the complete design of the Caged Bird Seal, which was difficult to bring to Kushina, so Hitomi made a copy. As was almost expected, the **Hyuuga Souke no Juinjutsu** was _also_ compacted, the actual design nearly encompassing the victims entire body, but 'squeezed' down into the pattern on the forehead.

Following this plan, it was entirely possible Naruto could recruit the entire Branch family of the Hyuuga clan; now wouldn't that be something? But that will be for later, as well as other plans he had.

"That was a most interesting battle, Naruto-san; while your posturing and taunting was illogical in my eyes, I can forgive it as being part of your personality, while I can respect and praise the genius you've shown. Perhaps you can share with us how you achieved everything we've seen in such a small amount of time?" Shino asked, surprising Naruto and Shikamaru greatly; that was the most he had talked at once.

Kankurou and Temari, to the side, merely stared at him in concentration, trying to piece together a way to possibly defeat him should they face him in battle. Gaara merely stared down at the arena until Hayate called for him and Sasuke to appear to fight.

"While I obviously can't share with you all my secrets, and I thank you all the same for your praise, Shino-san, I can tell you that I found some very enlightening information during the month, and found a pair of wonderful sensei to teach me." Naruto answered, referring to his parents once he met them.

Shino merely nodded at the information, turning back to face the arena when Hayate declared that Sasuke's and Gaara's fight would be postponed; clear favoritism. When he then asked for Shino and Kankurou to come down, Shino didn't get two steps in before his opponent forfeited. Usually not one to let his emotions get the better of him, Shino thought he was in the right when he turned to Kankurou and glared in annoyance; he had spent this entire month training with his father and clan for this fight, and it was taken from him. Plans and strategies to go around his opponents puppet, wasted. He would have to settle for whoever would be his next opponent, which would either be Shikamaru or Temari, unless they officially switched the fights around, then it would either be Gaara or Sasuke, two opponents he would admit to not wanting to face at all, knowing he would lose; in fact, if he faced the former, there was a very likely chance he would _die._

Crowd furious at being denied two fights, one by the 'blessed Uchiha' not showing up, and the other because of a coward, Shikamaru was hard-pressed to care all the same. "Ah man... that means my fight's up next. I have to fight a girl, too... how troublesome. Maybe I'm better off just forfeiting, too..." Shikamaru pondered as he didn't bother moving from the railing as Temari jumped over it and glided down to the arena.

"Like _fuck_ you are! Get down there before I kick your ass!" Naruto rebutted before _literally_ kicking Shikamaru in the ass over the railing, sending him down into the arena, leaving him to land on his back staring up at the sky in bored shock, _if that was possible._

"Kamit dammit, Naruto... Ugh, I better do this anyway; don't want to have my kaa-san tear me a new one for forfeiting because I couldn't be bothered." Shikamaru reasoned to himself and got to his feet to walk over and face Temari for their fight.

What followed was... a surprisingly intense fight, at least for a genius like Naruto. Finding Shikamaru had a hidden well of intelligence was almost refreshing, and seeing his strategies, backup plans, and fallbacks was quite the experience. Naruto would be hard-pressed to say he would have come up with that parachute-kunai-shadow trick himself.

It was rather humbling, actually.

Then the coup de grace, using the very trench Naruto created with his giant wind axe to sneak his shadow behind Temari and capture her; that was... a bit crazy, but it was Naruto's kind of crazy.

"I forfeit."

Wait what?

Before Naruto could explode with indignation, Shikamaru, ignorant of the storm of rage above him, reasoned he was low on chakra and thus he wouldn't be able to face any other opponents.

This was doubly genius: obviously thinking ahead to keep himself from unnecessarily getting his ass handed to him, or _killed_ depending on who he was put up against, and giving Temari a certifiable Pyrrhic victory.

Pretty much the closest thing Shikamaru would get to outright saying 'fuck you' without actually saying it. Genius.

Once the Nara heir reappeared in the booth, Naruto approached him, hands on his shoulders. "Shikamaru. With that show of talent and genius, you have my respect not just as a shinobi, but as a fellow genius; you'd make a hell of a scientist." He... complimented in his own way.

"Uh... okay? Thanks, I guess. Where's this scientist talk coming from anyway, Naruto? What the hell have you been doing for the past month?" Shikamaru questioned lazily, but there was a curious, intelligence glint in his eye; he was fishing for information.

"Now that is another story altogether. I'll tell you later; suffice it to say, it shattered my view of everything I knew and brought to light some very important information." Naruto denied him that which he desired, taking his hands away and walking back to the railing to watch the next fight, which should be Sasuke vs Gaara; the last Uchiha had over an hour to get his ass here, so he better show. Naruto felt like delivering some personal justice; that is if Gaara didn't kill him beforehand.

Shikamaru stared at Naruto for a couple seconds, trying to decipher his words to see what he could find, only to come up with nothing; the troublesome blonde was being surprisingly guarded with his words, and playing his own game of telling Shikamaru everything by telling him nothing.

Troublesome blonde...

"Took you long enough, teme!" Naruto suddenly called down to the field. While Shikamaru pondered the puzzle that was Uzumaki Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi showed up in a rather dramatic **Shunshin,** the Jounin merely asking if they were late, not apologizing in the least. Kakashi left the arena and reappeared in the stands, taking a seat in the area reserved for the Jounin sensei, not moving his face from his little orange book, though he raised a brow at the 14 strangers all dressed alike sitting behind the Jounin. Whatever, it didn't concern him.

With Hayate announcing the fight the begin, Gaara let his sand loose, the grains arising from the gourd on his back, Sasuke jumping back to get out of his immediate range. Gaara's bloodthirsty grin was broken by a sudden throbbing headache, and he cradled his forehead. "Please... don't get so mad... Mother." He begged quietly.

 _'The hell is he talking about?'_ Sasuke wondered with narrowed eyes.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at this 'Mother' business. While Soifon was in Suna copying their jutsu library, she caught word of talks about their jinchuriki, a person who suffered much like him; perhaps even worse, looking at the results. In actuality, Gaara was almost exactly like Naruto; looking at the Suna Genin, Naruto saw himself if he didn't find anyone that cared for him, and while the Sandaime was obviously a falsity, Iruka-sensei, Teuchi-oji-san, and Ayame-nee-chan, as well as the orphans, and now his subordinates, parents, and even Zabuza and Haku all became his precious people, and they steered him away from the path that Gaara clearly took.

Soifon told him that Gaara, son of the Kazekage, was _born_ with Shukaku inside of him, and his birth killed his mother, who gave him his name as a curse. His father attempted to mold him as a weapon, but when that failed, he washed his hands of the situation and sent assassin after assassin to rid himself of his own failure. In doing that, he molded Gaara into the monster he was, Shukaku taking the opportunity to mold Gaara into the empty shell he was, calling it Mother and liberally using its power, the sham of a seal holding the bijuu ensuring he would never sleep, quite possibly his entire life.

It sickened Naruto to look at Gaara, because he saw himself, but without _anyone_ to ground him in some semblance of sanity that he called his current mindset; something needed to be done to fix this.

 _We hate in others what we see in ourselves._

"We'd need to see his seal to do something, sochi." Minato answered his thoughts.

 _'Noted; I'll do what I can.'_ Naruto responded, turning his eyes to the fight. Sasuke was currently stuck with his arm in the throat of a **Suna Bunshin,** but he quickly escaped and displayed speed very similar to Lee's in the Preliminary Round. _'It appears Kakashi was spending this entire month getting his speed up, trying to make him like Lee; bastard's even mocking his Goken stance. What for, though? There had to be a reason for upping his speed so much.'_ Naruto pointed out, trying to piece it together.

"I know why he did it..." Minato responded, eyes narrowed. "It's most likely Kakashi was teaching Sasuke a technique of his; he did the same thing when he was making it himself. It's almost perfect for Sasuke, considering his Sharingan; when Kakashi was making the technique, he couldn't do it without putting himself at risk. It was only after Obito gave him his Sharingan was he able to beat the tunnel vision. The **Chidori..."** He imparted on his son, angry at his former student. The **Chidori** was an A rank assassination technique, and he taught it to the obviously unhinged _Genin?_ He was already on his shit list for ignoring Naruto, _his son,_ but this was just too much.

 _'Hmm... sounds like the counterpart to the_ _ **Rasengan.'**_ Naruto commented when he really thought about it, watching as Sasuke outpaced Gaara's sand and kicked him across the field. The Uchiha then ran around Gaara fast enough to kick up plenty of dust before suddenly shooting inward and beating on Gaara for a bit, eventually cracking that **Suna no Yoroi** he showed in the Preliminaries right on his face. _'Just realized Gaara's sand manipulation might be perfect for aiding Rangiku-chan's ash techniques; I'll need to analyze the data from everyone afterwards with her.'_ He noted to himself.

Gaara suddenly began to cocoon himself in his sand, forming a giant sphere, Sasuke running in to stop him, only to receive bloodied knuckles and cuts on his cheek and leg from the spikes that grew out, the sand having condense to be like stone; nothing was getting through that dome.

Nothing except probably the **Chidori.**

That floating eye was rather disconcerting...

Sasuke attempted, time and again, to get through the sand somehow, with kunai, shuriken, and taijutsu when he thought the spikes wouldn't make it; they always did.

Eventually he took to the arena wall and went through three hand seals, his hand alighting with lightning chakra.

 _'So, there it is... the_ _ **Chidori.**_ _Rather loud, isn't it? But I guess it'd only make sense with a name like that. What does it do, tou-san?'_ Naruto asked.

"It pierces, plain and simple. The user goes as fast as they can in a straight line to stab the target; like I said, doing that creates a tunnel vision, and puts the person at risk, while only those with the Sharingan can beat that. Kakashi created it when he couldn't combine his lightning affinity with my **Rasengan** when I taught it to him." Minato answered.

 _'Wait... Kakashi knows the_ _ **Rasengan,**_ _too? And he didn't even bother teaching it to me,_ your son?' Naruto asked indignantly, quickly growing enraged, Minato and Kushina sharing his anger.

"Apparently not. Kami, and to think I died for this village..." Minato lamented his past decision, but there was a silver lining; were it not for what he did, he would not be a part of his son's life. In a roundabout fashion, Minato took the route that would have made sure he wasn't in Naruto's life, which lead to him being in Naruto's life. When with Naruto, one should expect crazy logic.

Their thoughts were cut off when Gaara screamed to the heavens that he was bleeding; apparently he had truly never been harmed, according to that Kabuto guy back before the first test. And with that, feathers began to fall from the sky; Naruto could see civilians already falling asleep.

 _'Genjutsu.'_ He surmised, quickly executing the genjutsu release technique, the slight drowsiness penetrating his mind disappearing; at the same time, the explosion of a smoke bomb was formed in the Kage booth, and two blurs immediately jumped from it to the roof of the stadium. Naturally, Naruto was about to question what the hell was going on, but several shinobi, and even the civilians that hadn't fallen asleep, went up in smoke and reappeared as Suna and Oto shinobi, beginning to slaughter those around them; he reacted quickly. "Protect the children!" He ordered the Shinigami, none of them hesitating to form a perimeter around the orphans, striking down those that came near them.

Apparently thanks to him getting Baki to the T&I Department, Konoha was well-prepared for this invasion, as several shinobi-in-hiding popped out to face the invaders, preventing a drastic loss of innocent life.

Pity.

"Shouldn't we work to protect _everyone,_ not just those children you seem to care for, Naruto-san?" Shino questioned, already on alert as he took down one of the shinobi that invaded the booth for the contestants with his kikaichu.

"You can do that; I'll be doing something more productive. I believe I am owed a few deaths of these pigs; don't try to make an enemy of me, Shino." Naruto warned, directing his killing intent towards the Aburame and Shikamaru, who was pretending to have fallen for the genjutsu. "I have been through too much to spend energy protecting them when they'll just die anyway. Every one of their deaths will equal a drop of blood they have taken from me, and I'm quite fine with the severe population drop that will result in. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be slaughtering the pigs that have sought to take my entertainment from me; I was so looking forward to beating Sasuke down if he somehow beat Gaara with that lightning technique of his." He told them, jumping over the railing to go after Gaara.

"That was quite the risk you took, Naru-chan." Kushina warned him of his politicking.

 _'I'm counting on their intelligence piecing together my words; perhaps we can gain two more allies from this. If not, then we still don't have to worry about them ratting on me since I put the fear of Kami into them.'_ Naruto defended his on-the-spot plan; perhaps through Shikamaru and Shino, he might gain the entire Nara and Aburame clans to his crusade. "Take the children to the orphanage, activate the seals, and strike down the invaders!" He ordered his subordinates, only receiving nods and bloodied blades as the Shinigami gathered up the children and killed Oto and Suna shinobi as they took them to the orphanage they and Naruto grew up in.

After Naruto adopted the children and fired the staff, he created several seals on and around the building that would act as barriers should any civilians or shinobi seek to go after them because they were connected to him; he wouldn't put it past these people. The Shinigami would activate them with _another_ seal on a scrap of paper Naruto gave them, since none of them had chakra and he and his parents haven't found a way to make fuinjutsu work with reiryoku yet.

Before he could go after his intended quarry, Naruto was accosted by a platoon of invading shinobi, three Oto and two Suna; he couldn't tell what ranks the Oto shinobi were, since they all literally dressed the same, but the Suna-nin were two Chuunin, going by their vests that still bore shoulderpads.

"Considering you lot were in the crowd, you _know_ how this is going to end; I'll give you one chance to walk away." Naruto offered with a sardonic grin, knowing they wouldn't take it.

"Shut up, Konoha scum!" Was all one of the Suna shinobi said before they all approached him.

With a sigh, Naruto quickly liberated them of their annoying lives with swipes of his katana, and headed for the northern forest, where Temari and Kankurou took Gaara, Sasuke following quickly behind, only to be flagged down by his peers and a... dog?

"Naruto, wait! We're going with you; Kakashi-sensei's orders." Sakura called out, joined by Shikamaru, Shino, and the aforementioned dog, which Minato mentioned should be one of Kakashi's summons, Pakkun if he remembered right.

"If you must, but _do_ try to keep up; I won't waste my time coming to your aid if you can't even put your all into this mission given to you. I'm mostly talking to _you,_ Sakura." Naruto pointed out, turning to continue following his target even as Sakura squawked indignantly.

Leaving a bitching Sakura behind before she snapped out of it to follow them, Shikamaru and Shino followed the blonde, their minds still on his words when he dismissed the latter's accusation of saving the villagers; since they were given this mission by a Jounin, they wouldn't have to worry about that now, but Naruto was quick to ignore that normally-obvious fact as a citizen of Konoha. The question was why? And what did he mean by the blood they had taken from him? Was he insinuating that the people of Konoha hurt him in some way? Why? They _did_ remember how he was always alone and sad as a kid back in the Academy, and they saw more than once several adults glaring at him with a fierce intensity, and even heard some less-than-nice things they whispered his way. Why?

What is the story of Uzumaki Naruto?

Following the directions of Kakashi's summoned 'hound', they ran and jumped through the forest, trailing behind the Suna siblings. "Hang on, we got enemy shinobi incoming." Pakkun spoke with his gruff voice not matching his size.

After quick deliberating amongst them, Shikamaru agreed to stay behind and hold them off, knowing he was still low on chakra from his fight with Temari. With that, they moved on ahead, running and jumping in silence for a while until they found Kankurou in their path. Denied his fight, Shino immediately volunteered to stay behind; Naruto couldn't find it in himself to begrudge his choice, imparting only a 'Don't die on me.'

Left to a single capable fighter and a dog - Sakura's not worth much in terms of fighting - they _finally_ happened upon a demonized Gaara and a Curse Seal-bearing Sasuke, twitching on the forest floor and at the mercy of the approaching jinchuriki, Temari off to the side, shaking in fear at Gaara's form. Already getting a bad taste in his mouth, Naruto jumped in and kicked Gaara away from the Uchiha. "I see you're using your uber-hickey, Uchiha; are you too weak to achieve something under your own power?" He took the prime opportunity to mock the boy, smirking at his scowl and spike in frustration. "Just stay down here while the big boys talk it out." He further mocked as Gaara got up and leered at him.

 **"You would protect the weak, Uzumaki Naruto?!"** Gaara questioned insanely.

"I'm hardly protecting them, but once upon a time I might have, maybe even thought of these two as my precious people, but no more. He, an arrogant prick who believes he is owed the world, and she, a talentless fangirl who shrieks every second she gets, whether to point out my faults or praise his tiny victories? No thank you. But since I most likely won't be graduating these Exams, I still need them for next time, until I am finally rid of them; granted, I myself most likely won't graduate, but that suits me just fine. I can still accomplish great things, even as a Genin. Plus if either of them die, somehow the blame will be put on _me,_ so just to save myself the headache, I can't have you kill them." Naruto provided, smirking when both Sakura and Sasuke grew indignant and enraged at his opinion of them, while thinking over his own answer; specifically that 'precious people' business. While his personality and mind were changed quite a bit due to the infusion at the beginning of the month, there were still parts of the old Naruto within him, specifically the part Haku herself engrained into him, that one becomes strong to protect those close to them. Currently, those close to him included his parents, godmother, the Shinigami, the 'revived' missing-nin and his apprentice, two ramen chefs, and a gaggle of children, and really only those last two actually needed him to protect them, so that was enough for him. It was the only part of his old self he was okay with keeping, to be honest.

 **"And you do not fight for your village? For your comrades? For those you love?"** Gaara questioned, actually becoming slightly more sane in the face of someone to seemed to care for no one, just like him, but the grip of Shukaku was strong.

"A great majority of this village can rot in Hell, for all I care; growing up the way I did didn't exactly endear me to them. I have very few comrades, but that may change soon, so I guess you could say I'm fighting for them. And those I love... I can't say I honestly _love_ anyone, yet. I care for two civilians, ramen chefs, and the children I adopted, as well as... others..." Naruto received a positive wave of happiness from within, his parents understanding what he meant. "...so I guess them as well." He completed his answer.

Having lost any semblance of a connection he might have had with the blonde, Gaara grew furious and unhinged again. **"Then we are nothing alike. I am disappointed, Uzumaki Naruto, but perhaps killing you will prove my existence all the same!"** He announced, before rearing his deformed arm back. "Suna Shuriken!" Swinging it forward, several large shuriken made of sand flew from it towards the blonde.

"Again with his proving your existence nonsense..." Naruto commented under his breath before he _kicked_ Sasuke backwards to get him out of the way before jumping to dodge the deadly projectiles. "Can't afford to mess around, though, so... **Watashino gawade tatte kudasai, Hahaoya no Ikari!"** Unsealed zanpakutou in hand, Naruto immediately swung the light-green blade. **"Haha no Hauru!"** The powerful gale that resulted from it pushed Gaara back and clear the section of forest in his direction. Quickly following up, he pointed his swords forward, touching at their points as much as they could, considering their shape, and executed another technique he created. **"Juurai no Sashi Kizu!" (Stab of the Legacy)** The wind and water came together and become a whirlpool midair, before it barreled forward like a lance towards Gaara, who was currently pulling himself from the felled trees.

Much too quickly for his liking, Gaara soon roared in rage from the attack, leaping from the cloud of dust, uplifted dirt, and possibly disintegrated trees, his entire upper body encased in sand and looking more and more like the Ichibi no Tanuki.

 _'This is quickly becoming annoying; he's progressing much too fast in giving himself over to the bijuu, and unless the sealer was really weird, the actual seal for the bastard is most likely covered up by now. I'll either need to knock Gaara out and deal with Shukaku after that, or someone detain him and peel all that sand away to get to Gaara underneath. While the latter is more preferable, it's infinitely more likely the former will occur, because life is cruel.'_ Naruto observed with a scowl. _'Then again, if the former_ does _happen, these two idiots will most definitely be crushed, and while I'd enjoy that greatly, I_ wouldn't _enjoy the political shitstorm that would come down on me soon after because they died, and the aforementioned blame being pinned on me_ somehow, _so I need to do something about them. The Uchiha's currently incapable of even standing, and the girl is his beloved sheep who would never abandon him, so...'_ "I've always wanted to do this..." He finally commented out loud before zipping over to Sasuke, picking him up like a sack of potatoes, and doing the same with Sakura. "Quick crash course: curl into a ball, cover your face, and pray to whatever the fuck you believe in!" He yelled before _throwing them over the forest as hard as he could._ "I gave them instructions; if they die, that's their own fault." He reasoned half-heartedly. "Eh, they've probably got a sample of the bastard in the hospital to bring back the Sharingan if he bites it; if not, then that's _their_ problem, it should be pretty obvious to do in this situation." He muttered afterwards, almost forgetting about the demonized Gaara behind him.

He quickly jumped to the side to dodge a giant limb of sand intent on splattering him on the grass.

 _Almost_ forgot.

With a swing of the scimitar in his right hand, Naruto chopped one of Gaara's arms clean off thanks to the wind sheathing its edge. Of course, it quickly grew back; it _was_ made of sand, after all. Gaara spun around to swing his new tail at the blonde, dodging as his enemy jumped over it and chopped the thing off before creating a whip of water from his left-hand scimitar and striking Gaara with it, carving a great gouge from his sand-covered body, only for both injuries to quickly mend themselves.

Scowling in annoyance, Naruto swung with his blade of water again, this time sending a salvo of needles, smirking when they went clear through Gaara's arms, which he raised to block them, blood trickling from the wounds, even as they closed themselves, the flesh wounds most likely as well. _'Okay, so piercing attacks are the way to go; anything else will do fuck all.'_ He observed, before taking a deep breath. **"Fuuton: Shinkyuugokyu!"** Spitting several miniscule bullets of wind chakra, they shot forward like bullets in a wide spray, some missing while others hit home, piercing right through Gaara's arms and stomach, causing him to roar in pain and rage.

Even as they healed, Gaara snarled at his opponent and took a deep breath, both through his natural mouth and the many jagged ones all over his body he formed. "Fuuton: Mugen Sajin - Daitoppa!" Blowing sand-laden blasts of wind from all the mouths, Gaara seemed intent on leveling this area of the forest with extreme prejudice in his bid for Naruto's death.

"Shit! **Umi no Houyou** **!" (Embrace of the Sea)** With a swing of his left blade, large arms made of water formed beside him and curled forward into a shield-like embrace, protecting him, if barely, from the attack. With it over, the arms were dismissed, and Naruto was forced to duck and dodge as Gaara immediately rushed in to attack him once he saw his technique failed to harm him.

 **"How?! How is it you are so strong when you fight for others?! You should be weak, and yet I, someone who loves no one and fights only for himself, cannot hurt you!"** Gaara demanded, the whole situation not jiving with his life-view.

"Well, for one thing, you're in a berserk mode right now, swapping all finesse for power, while I have both to spare. But that's probably not the answer you're looking for. I'm strong _because_ I fight for others, for the people I care about that need protection. And besides, there's too much on the line for me to not get strong; I'm going to make this village pay for everything it did to me, took from me, cheated me out of." Naruto supplied, a scowl growing on his face at the thought of everything Konoha did.

 **"See?! You even hate those around you, just like me, and yet you are stronger than me! Fighting for others is something the weak do! Only to strong fight for themselves, like me! So why?! WHY CAN'T I KILL YOU?!"** Gaara demanded as the blonde kept dodging him and retaliating with techniques that bypassed his sand.

"It doesn't matter what I say, since no answer will please you. Just stop fighting, Gaara, I don't want to kill you; I want to _help_ you. I can do something about your seal, do something about Shukaku, so you can sleep." Naruto tried to reason with him.

For a moment, just a moment, Gaara looked like he was going to stop, like he was going to take Naruto up on his offer, but then a look of pain crossed his face, and he cradled his head; it seemed like Shukaku had something to say about that. Before Naruto could try to reach him further, Gaara went up in a puff of smoke that quickly began to grew, both outwards and upwards, the force of what lay within pushing Naruto back.

"Ah fuck... here comes round two." Naruto commented as he looked upwards, the fanged visage of the Ichibi no Tanuki arising from the smoke, Gaara's comparatively miniscule form growing out of its forehead _just_ visible from down here.

"You're lying! No one can help me! I will be forever alone, killing anyone and everyone to prove my existence! **Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu!"** Gaara sealed any attempt for Naruto to help him with words with that one technique, as he forcefully went to sleep, the pattern in Shukaku's eyes dilating and turning vibrant soon after.

 **"WHOOHOO! I'M BACK, BABY! I'M FINALLY OUT!"** Shukaku proclaimed to the heavens.

Naruto sweatdropped heavily. "I never would have taken one of the bijuu to be this... eccentric." He commented under his breath. Unfortunately, Shukaku seemed to have heard that, as it turned its attention to him.

 **"AND HERE'S SOMEONE I WANT TO KILL RIGHT NOW!"** The bijuu announced before attempting to squish Naruto like a bug.

"Shit!" Naruto exclaimed before dodging the limb as fast as he could, eventually putting some distance between him and the bijuu. "Fine, you wanna take this to the next level, I'll be happy to oblige..." He said almost to himself as he bit his thumb and went through three hand seals.

 **"KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!"**

End Ch. 3

Not quite a cliffhanger, since, if you've been paying attention, you already know what the summon will be, but I feel it's a good place to stop. Now, time for the jacke44 lineup, this time not so big: the betting, the orphans as mentioned before, and the orphans beating up Sakura were all specified.

Now, I'm not sure if I managed to balance Naruto's new personality with some parts of his canon self correctly, so I'll rely on you guys to tell me if it's good or not. Like the story as a whole.

I had originally intended to ask this in Kitsune of the Spirit, but considering this is being updated first, and it still falls within the desired parameters set for asking _there,_ I'll do it here.

Do you guys wanna see a Quincy!Naruto story where he's essentially a jinchuriki of Yhwach? (Not _actually_ a jinchuriki but... it's a thing; depending on your answer, you'll see) I'll note this is a Yhwach with all the **Schrift (** I'm one of the people who believe he gets their powers once he takes his soul fragments back) and thus Naruto will, too. He'll be making his own Sternritter with Naruto characters, complete with new **Schrift** s where appropriate. I've already got 2 chapters finished of it and am working on a third. So

DO YOU WANT TO SEE THIS TYPE OF STORY? I'm not yelling that, I'm making it all caps so you can see the main focus of this A/N. If the answer is predominantly 'yes', then I'll release it; if 'no', then... well, I'll most likely write it for myself, and it'll collect digital dust on my laptop. But do not take _that_ as an obligation to say yes; if you actually want to see this story, then say so.

With that out of the way, I simply want you guys to tell me what you think, and answer this question.

Ja ne!


End file.
